


Soul Song

by unwrittengold



Series: The Saga of Yanojo and Jaharis [1]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Fix-It, Hurt Ianto Jones, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2020-10-07 00:13:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 51,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20515835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwrittengold/pseuds/unwrittengold
Summary: Two aliens from the future followed by bounty hunters approach Torchwood for help in rescuing another of their kind they believe has already been captured. They explain their companion came to 21st century Cardiff to see the beginnings of a story turned into a famous musical composition in the future - the Song of Yanojo. When Ianto goes missing shortly after, Torchwood starts to think the events might be tied together. What they don't know is that the Song contains a message for the future... a message that reveals - once a certain event has come to pass - how to save someone believed to be forever lost.Contains references to The House of the Dead





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I used to be super into Torchwood back when the first and second season was airing, then fell out of the fandom for some years after refusing to watch Children of Earth. I recently learned that there were new audiobooks being released with my favorite character Ianto and found myself getting back into the fandom after listening to some of them. I know a lot of people probably have their own Children of Earth Fix-It story. This is mine while continuing to still be as canon compliant as possible up until after Miracle Day. I spent about two weeks straightening out and writing down the plot line for this saga because it's going to be going all over the place, haha. I'm estimating the whole saga will take place over four separate stories of varying lengths. This one is looking to be about 3 to 5 chapters long at my best guess, but I'm terrible at guessing so we'll see!

“Always an adventure, this life,” Ianto muttered. He fought the growing urge to bang his head against the steering wheel of his car, opting to squeeze it tightly while taking a deep breath instead. He waited for a few seconds, then let go the same time he breathed out, feeling some of the tension of annoyance ebb away. Sitting there doing nothing was driving him a bit stir crazy, what with all the things Torchwood had been dealing with so far that day. The day was only halfway over with too; there were still plenty of things that needed to be done before the team could collectively relax, and all of those things were practically impossible given where he was right then.

Working for Torchwood usually meant being deterred from the basics of daily life by aliens. Unfortunately, Ianto was being deterred at that moment not by aliens, but by an accident that had happened in the road five cars ahead. He’d gotten out to see if anyone had been hurt and needed assistance, but apparently it’d been someone who’d been crossing the road and had collapsed dead in the middle of it. It had seemed a bit odd, but he didn’t have a scanner handy – Tosh had taken the single one he and she had been using when he’d dropped her off earlier – so there was nothing he could do about it, resulting in him returning to his car where he’d been sitting for the last 20 minutes. He sighed, peering out at the back of the vehicle in front of him. There were a couple of cars pulled up behind him, so no matter how much he wished he could just back up and turn around, he was stuck.

His mobile rang, and Ianto snatched it up to answer, grateful for something to break the waiting.

“Ianto Jones.”

“Ianto!” Jack’s voice greeted him cheerily. “How’s the traffic situation moving along?”

“It’s not,” Ianto said in a disgruntled tone.

“Damn. And here I was hoping we could get a pick-me-up of your amazing coffee before we go tackle this new situation.”

“You want me back at the Hub just to make some coffee?” Ianto asked wryly, even though the corner of his mouth turned up in mild amusement. “Dare I ask what new situation?”

“That, and I was hoping you could come along with me and Gwen on this one. You’d be helpful. Torchwood gets to go play ambassador now.”

Ianto resisted the urge to groan at a potential new thing cropping up. “Is this in any relation to all those readings Tosh’s Rift monitor picked up on earlier?”

“Actually, it is. Well, half of them, Tosh thinks. You know how the first one happened about 30 minutes before all the others, and the rest of them happened within minutes of each other after that? And the first one appeared within a half mile of the second and third that were almost right next to each other?”

Ianto made a hum of confirmation.

“But the rest of them, while still being clustered close to each other, were miles away, so we thought they might be some sort of group or groups?”

“The last grouping was the one that Tosh was pretty sure read as four humans and one undetermined alien species, right?”

“Right. Well, we’re pretty sure we got an invitation from one of those groups. We found those massive readings of residual energy at the first three areas, and all of them led to the nearest hospital. Then there was an alert saying that three people who had been in vegetative states suddenly disappeared from the same hospital. Tosh took a peek at a CCTV nearby where they’re waiting for us to meet, and lo and behold, there’s two of the three missing people looking very much awake and alert. Hopefully, they’ll be able to tell us where their other friend is. Any chance you can make a 2 o’clock invitation?”

Ianto glanced at the clock. That was in 27 minutes. “I’ll do my best, but it’s probably better you don’t wait up for me. Don’t want to keep our guests waiting too long and let them start causing more trouble because they think we’ve stood them up. What about the other activity? The last group?”

“Owen and Tosh are still working on that. Anything unusual about the situation you’re in?”

“Nothing obviously linked as far as I can tell, although someone who looks to be in their mid-20’s collapsing in the middle of the road does seem a bit unusual. Might not hurt to have Tosh come scan the area if she and Owen can’t find any leads. I’d have done it earlier myself, but Tosh has the scanner we were using. I’ll keep you posted if I find out anything new or when traffic starts moving again. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“Alright. I’ll send you the details about where to go then tell Tosh to go take a look when she has a chance; meet us there soon as you can.”

“Be careful, Jack,” Ianto implored.

“You too.”

Ianto snorted in wry amusement. “Right, because I’m going to get into so much trouble being stuck in a traffic standstill.”

“I meant when you get to the meeting point, smartass,” Jack said fondly with a light chuckle. 

“Goodbye, Jack,” Ianto said in his best humoring tone.

“See you in a bit, Ianto.” There was a click, and Jack was gone.

Idly tapping his fingers against the steering wheel, Ianto waited for Jack to send the location details through. The phone beeped with an incoming text message shortly after, and as he skimmed it over, he noted that the meeting place wasn’t too far from where he was now. The ambulance and police had to be almost done with reviewing the scene before they moved the body, so Ianto was fairly confident he could get to the meeting point before things started.

It only took a couple more minutes before the cars ahead of him started to slowly move forward, and Ianto breathed a small sigh of relief. A police officer waved traffic through, and Ianto lifted a hand up in thanks as he passed by. He planned to get down the road some ways before contacting Jack to let him know he was on his way, just in case things stalled again. Once he was about a quarter mile down from where the accident had been, he dug around in the middle compartment between the two front seats for his earpiece so he could talk on his mobile hands free.

He’d only just picked it up when a large, heavy-set man stepped quickly and directly out in front of his car, facing towards it. Ianto dropped the earpiece with a curse as he slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve out of the way, but he didn’t stop fast enough, hitting the man dead on and knocking him to the ground. There was a moment where he paused, not quite believing that had just happened, before he flung the car door opened and quickly stepped out to see if the man was all right.

Hurrying over, Ianto crouched down and placed his fingers against the man’s neck to feel for a pulse, feeling a small rush of relief when he picked up on one. He scanned the body to check for any discernible injuries and was a bit bewildered to see there didn’t seem to be any. He hadn’t been driving terribly fast, but he hadn’t been going all that slow either…

He stood to go back to the car and grab his mobile to call for help when he saw the bonnet and promptly froze.

There were dents in the rough shape of hand prints. Large dents. A human couldn’t possibly have enough strength to make dents that big, and judging by how deep they were, Ianto had a suspicious feeling that the man had slammed his hands down hard onto his car intentionally in an effort to stop it. 

A hand shot out to latch around his ankle in a vise-like grip, causing Ianto to jolt and let out a yell of surprise. Instinctively attempting to yank his foot free, Ianto saw the man roll onto his side and begin to stand up. Cursing again, Ianto gave a few more yanks with his foot before he kicked as hard as he could with the other one. The man let out a howl that sounded more like annoyance than anything else, but it did the trick. 

Ianto staggered backwards, putting some space between them before he dove back into his car, desperately digging around in the side compartment for the handgun he always had stashed there when not in use. This was absolutely not a normal situation, and Ianto would rather be safe than sorry. Snatching up the gun and turning the safety off, Ianto turned to face the man, ready to defend himself if need be.

The man had gotten up and was on his feet now but was just… standing there now, staring at him unblinkingly. 

Unnerved, Ianto waited for a few long, tense moments, continuing to hold the gun up and pointed at the man. When nothing happened - the man still staring almost blankly - Ianto opened his mouth to speak but paused when he spotted a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye… Something climbing up onto the bonnet…?

By the time he switched his gaze to look forward through the windscreen, it was already too late. He was only able to catch a quick glimpse of something large, dark purple, and fur-covered lunging straight at him before it hit the windscreen with enough strength that the glass immediately shattered. Ianto threw an arm up in front of his face in an attempt to shield it and felt a mouthful of sharp teeth clamp down around the limb, causing searing pain to race through it. The only reaction he had time for was to let out a scream as he found himself being yanked viciously out of the car.

****************************************************************************************************

Jack held his mobile to his ear, listening to the ringing tone with a growing frown before ending the call when it finally clicked over to voicemail. “Ianto’s not answering,” he told Gwen. “He must be tied up with something at the moment. Looks like it’s just the two of us for this.”

Gwen let out a sympathetic sigh from the passenger seat of the SUV. “Poor Ianto. Of all the days to get stuck in traffic, of course it has to be a busy one. I’m sure he’ll catch up with us as soon as he can.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, opening the door and stepping out while trying to stamp down the niggling feeling inside of him. It was rare that Ianto didn’t answer his phone, especially if they were in the middle of a work day, but Jack was sure that Ianto could take care of himself in just about any situation should anything have come up since they last spoke, and Ianto had been right - there wasn’t much that could happen sitting in a traffic standstill. Still, he couldn’t shake that tiny feeling of concern. There was a task at hand to focus on, though, so Jack set any concern aside for the time being.

He glanced around the meeting area as he and Gwen walked towards their awaiting guests, making note of any other potential security risks as well as quick exit routes and places to take cover behind in case things started going south. Only after he had a few back-up plans did he focus on the aliens.

The two of them looked human, given that they were probably inhabiting the missing people from the hospital. One was a woman with dark blond hair and green eyes – Eira Lewis, age 38 – and the other was a young man with light brown hair and hazel eyes – Dylan Collins, age 17. Eira had had an aggressive form of brain cancer while Dylan had been in a bicycle accident. The other missing person – Seren Rees, age 23 – was nowhere in sight. Jack knew from the report that her story was just as sad; she’d slipped into a vegetative state due to domestic violence. Thankfully, the person who had done it had been caught and was going to be spending some long quality time in prison very soon.

“Hello there,” Jack greeted them with a charming smile while he held out a hand to shake. “Captain Jack Harkness, and this is Gwen Cooper. So should I call you Eira and Dylan or do you go by something else now?” He kept up the smile but changed his tone and expression just enough to give the hint he was not very pleased that these aliens had hopped into other people’s bodies. 

The woman watched him with an impassive look, ignoring the outstretched hand. Her gaze flicked over to Gwen just for a moment before she returned her attention to Jack. “I am Araellune, and this is Eluael.” She motioned towards the young man standing just as placid next to her. “We needed to take hosts in order to communicate with you.”

“See, I’ve got a little problem with that,” Jack explained, sticking his hands in his coat pockets and rocking back on his heels a bit to give of a vibe of being at ease, even though he was inwardly on alert for anything. “Taking other people’s bodies without consent? That’s a little rude, don’t you think?”

“The vessels were empty,” Araellune stated with just enough of an edge to her tone that gave Jack the impression she might actually have been insulted by the comment. “And when we do take hosts with consciousnesses, we _always_ ask for permission first. We are not barbaric.”

“What do you mean by ‘we’? What species are you?” Gwen piped in, wary but still curious at the same time.

Araellune was quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful. “Our species… We cannot tell you the name that we call ourselves; you would not understand our language. That is why we need hosts, to learn your language and communicate. The last time we had dealings with your kind, you spoke a different language then than this… English you speak now. You asked us what it is that we are, what it is we do. We answered _audimus_. You may call us that. Audimus.”

“This is why I wish Ianto was here,” Jack side-commented to Gwen. “He would know what that means. Sounds… Latin?” he guessed, looking back at the aliens.

“It means _we hear_ in that language, yes,” Araellune explained.

“You must have been here a long time ago if people were speaking Latin then,” Jack noted.

“What does that mean, ‘we hear’? What do you hear?” Gwen questioned. 

“It is… somewhat difficult to explain. Our way of seeing and hearing in our true…” She trailed off, searching for the right word. “I believe you call them bodies. We have no completely solid form like these,” Araellune explained, motioning to herself in emphasis. “We are creatures of energy and we live in a... place where time and space meet.”

“Wait, _what_?” Jack gawked, holding his hands up in a ‘hang on a moment’ gesture. “Like the dimensional plane where time and space meet? The _time vortex_? You live in the _time vortex_.”

“If that is what you call it. And that is what we see and hear. A being’s time, in a sense. Their lifespan. Only we see and hear it as the things you call light and sound. Some being’s songs are brighter and more richly composed than others. We are chroniclers. We take these songs we see and hear and turn them into songs that others can see and hear too, so they may know the great story of the lives these beings have lived.”

“I’m guessing you also need to take hosts to actually write these songs,” Jack stated.

“We do not _take_ a host if there is still life in the host,” Araellune insisted, her impassive face shifting into a slight frown. “We are more known in the future, and many beings are honored to be hosts for us, to be the ones who side by side write down these great compositions, no matter the cost.”

“What sort of cost?” Gwen asked, not liking the sound of that.

“Our forms… Our energy… It burns out the life inside of the host over time. In the time measurements you use, a few days, I believe. This is why we seek out those who are dying or are close to death. It is wrong to burn out someone’s life before they have had a chance to completely live it, to destroy their song before it is meant to end. That is why we chose these hosts when we came here. Their songs were all but ended,” Araellune explained.

Jack flicked a glance at Gwen, trying to get a take if she was thinking along the same lines as him, that these aliens seemed fairly harmless, at the very least… She gave him a subtle nod and moved into a more relaxed stance, showing she agreed with that assessment. “Okay, so... why decide to come to Earth now?” she asked. “Why here in Cardiff?”

Araellune’s face took on a more concerned expression. “One of our songs… It is called the Song of Yanojo, written by perhaps our most greatest chronicler Liriyan. The Song is a beloved piece of work in the future.” She paused for a moment, searching for the right words to explain once again. “I… believe an equivalent to Liriyan in your species would be Shakespeare.”

“Come to think of it, I remember hearing about that being performed at various theaters,” Jack said with a snap of his fingers. “Some kind of love story, right? Never did get around to seeing it.”

Araellune nodded. “A great love story. What Yanojo goes through because of their love for their Jaharis… The lives they save by doing a truly heroic and selfless action that impacts so many…” Her mouth curled up into a surprising but genuine soft smile. “I highly recommend seeing it should you ever get the chance. But...” Here, her face fell again.

“One of our own, Lirithael... they love the Song of Yanojo. The story is their favorite out of any our kind have ever written. They used the Rift to come here to where the Song begins, to see it begin to unfold themself. However, because our species is so rare and not easily come across, we… are sometimes hunted as prizes.” Araellune pursed her lips together, brow knitting as she continued. “Lirithael… When they came here, it sent out a… You might say ‘a ripple through time’ that we heard, or rather, did not hear. Their song stopped suddenly, because they disappeared.”

“How do you know they just didn’t jump into a host?” Jack interjected.

“We would still be able to hear their song. When we are in a host’s body, we still are not completely cut off from the… time vortex, you called it? We can find an opening and go back into it at any time. This was different. Lirithael became purposefully cut off by something after they arrived. We are not sure if it has happened yet; we can navigate time differently than you do. We followed after them to ensure their safe return, but we ourselves were also followed by bounty hunters who were somehow able to track our energies. We have had previous dealings with these people.” Araellune’s tone turned to one of anger. “They have enslaved a few of us before, although mercifully we were able to free those of us that had been taken. Our people were, however, sadly damaged because of the experience. These hunters have some sort of… containment box they use to trap us in, blinding and deafening us. Not being able to see and hear songs...” She shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself in a self-soothing gesture. “It is practically the worst torment we can go through. And so we come to you, Torchwood, to ask for your help. Please help us find Lirithael. They may be suffering already.”

“Of course we’ll help,” Gwen was quick to say, casting a look at Jack to make sure he agreed. After a nod from him, she went into detective mode. “Alright, what do we already know… If the first three things we picked up on our monitor were you three Audimus, then the ones who came after are probably the hunters? Four humans and another alien species? Can you tell us anything about that?”

“An Umbra Hunter,” Araellune explained.

Jack’s eyebrows shot up. “A _what_? They have an _Umbra Hunter?_ Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I am sorry, but I am not,” Araellune answered solemnly.

“What’s that?” asked Gwen, looking to Jack for an explanation.

“Big cat.” Jack held his arms out in emphasis. “About the size of a tiger. Mean and nasty. They have handlers called Drudges. That must be what one of the humans was; they’re human enough. Each Umbra Hunter is bonded to one. The Drudges are big and dumb; the Hunters are the ones you really need to watch out for. They’re called Umbra Hunters because they can hide in shadows. The Drudge just walks around with this killer cat lurking in its shadow, and most people have no idea if they’ve never heard of them before. The Hunters release some kind of toxin in their claws and teeth that paralyzes their prey and magnifies the pain their victims feel. They make great assassins. And you’re telling me one’s running around Cardiff right now?” he asked incredulously.

Araellune nodded. “Yes. One of the bounty hunters managed to befriend a Drudge.”

Jack let out a whistle. “Wonder how they managed to do that. Alright, let’s get back to the car and start getting this sorted.” He turned and waved his hand in an invitation to follow as he walked off, Gwen falling into step beside him. “Just one question, though. How did you know about Torchwood?”

“We have heard of you before, from the future,” Araellune explained simply as she and Eluael walked along with them. “Eluael simply dug into one of your computer systems and found a way to send you a message through that.” She paused in speaking before eyeing Jack studiously for a moment and commenting, “I must say, Captain Jack Harkness... your song is very interesting.”

“Oh?” Jack flashed a grin back at her. “I hope that’s a good interesting.”

“There is some good in it, yes,” Araellune agreed, keeping her eyes ahead now. “But also sadness, regret, anger, pain, loss… A bright, short beginning before it becomes… murky. What is interesting is that it is a much longer song compared to the other beings I see around us now before it begins to repeat.” Noticing that Jack was grimacing a bit now, she added, “Still, there are flickering lights of good all throughout. For a moment, I even thought I heard a snatch of the Song of Yanojo in there, but it must have been simply just a few of the same notes.” 

“So how does that work?” Jack asked in an attempt to steer the conversation under his control. “Do you actually see the things someone has done in their life?” He hoped not because he really didn’t want an alien scrutinizing everything he’d ever done.

Araellune shook her head. “We cannot see the events, only what kind of impact they have had. Those hunting us, for example – one of them has a dark, dissonant song because he has killed many throughout his life, and his light is more stifled by shadows than anything else.”

“What about me?” Gwen asked, unable to hold back her curiosity. “What do you see when you look at me?”

Araellune gave her a gentle smile. “Your song is not yet over, Gwen Cooper, but it is a good song. A kind, gentle melody with a firm, strong foundation it rests on.”

Before Gwen could reply, her phone rang. “Oh, sorry, I’ll just-” she apologized as she scrambled to pull it out of her jeans pocket. She frowned a little when she saw who it was, hitting the button to answer the call and holding the mobile up to her ear. “Andy? Sorry, I’m in the middle of something right now.” She was quiet as she listened to what Andy was saying, stopping outside the SUV as the group reached it.

Jack opened one of the back doors for Araellune and Eluael, waving for them to climb inside as Gwen continued the call. “Yeah, I know him...” The slight concern in Gwen’s tone made Jack look over at her, eyebrows raised. That concern shot up a notch when he saw her face grow pale, her eyes jerking up to look at him in fear now. “We’ll be there as soon as we can,” she said quickly. “Thank you for calling, Andy.” Hanging up, she practically wretched the passenger door open to climb inside.

Jack moved quickly around to the driver’s side, getting the feeling something urgent had just happened. Once he’d opened the door, he asked, “What was all that about?” while sliding in.

“It’s Ianto.” Those words alone were enough to make Jack’s heart start racing as he started the car up. “They found his car in the middle of the road, looked like it’d been in some sort of accident, but when they looked inside...” Gwen spoke in short, quick words, but trailed off at the end, giving Jack the feeling he really wasn’t going to like what she was going to say next.

“What, Gwen?” he demanded, pulling the SUV into the street.

“Andy said it looked like there’d been some sort of animal attack because there were large claw marks inside,” she said reluctantly, concern for Ianto evident in her tone. “And there’s no sign of him anywhere. Could it be this Umbra Hunter thing?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Jack answered with gritted teeth. “Where? Any sign he might have been injured?”

Gwen gave him the street name, and Jack wasted no time in peeling the SUV off in that direction. “Andy just said there was ‘a worrisome amount’ of blood inside. I thought these hunters were after you three?” Gwen asked, turning to look at Araellune and Eluael in the back. “Why would they attack Ianto?”

Araellune shook her head. “I do not know. I am truly sorry if your companion has been harmed in any way. If it is because of the Umbra Hunter, then this is because of us. Any assistance we can lend, we will gladly give. We want to save Lirithael, but we do not wish any harm to come to anyone else in doing so.”

“Might be a bit too late for that,” Jack shot back tightly. Gwen gave him a reproachful look; he wasn’t making the situation any better by saying that, but he ignored it, poking at his ear to switch his comms on instead. “Tosh, Owen, you there?”

“Jack?” Tosh answered right away. “We found the other missing body, Seren Rees. That accident site Ianto wanted us to check out? That was her. I scanned the area, and we got those same energy readings that led to the hospital earlier. There’s no trail to follow this time, though. The energy just… vanishes, and Seren’s dead. We heard about another accident up the road, so Owen and I are headed there to check it out.”

Jack cursed under his breath. “Go as fast as you can, Tosh. Gwen and I will met you there; we just got word that Ianto was in that accident.”

He heard Tosh suck in a sharp breath. “What?”

“What’s going on, Jack?” Owen piped in, having been listening.

“Go in armed,” Jack ordered. “They said it looked like some kind of animal attack, and we think there’s a good chance it’s a big, mean, vicious alien cat. You see it, you shoot it immediately, and it might take a few bullets to bring it down. There might be a large, low-intelligent human around; if you see anyone like that, make sure they don’t get away but be extremely careful, understand? They’re linked to the cat; it hides in their shadow.”

“Is Ianto alright?” Owen asked, Jack understanding he wanted to know what kind of treatment might be needed once they got there.

“He’s missing,” Jack answered curtly. “Priority is to find him. There’s a high chance he’s injured too.”

“We’re on it,” Owen said before cutting off communication.

“We’ll find him,” Tosh added in, more for everyone’s reassurance than anything else.

“Be careful,” Gwen cautioned, knowing that they would be but needing to say it anyway.

Jack remained grimly silent, his only response being to push his foot down on the pedal to make the SUV go faster.

****************************************************************************************************

_Lirithael couldn’t stop marveling at the world around them. Her? They had taken the host of a female, but their species had no such thing as different genders, so it felt strange to think of themself as a she. This city – Cardiff – in the beginnings of the 21st century was beautiful. Lirithael believed it was probably beautiful in any century, but there was something special about the 21st that called to them. This was where the Song of Yanojo began. This is where Yanojo had lived when they did what others from the Land of Burnt Trees had tried to do for over a century. This is where Yanojo had closed the crack in time and space known as the Rift._

_It was a heroic sacrifice, no doubt, but that wasn’t why Lirithael loved the Song of Yanojo above all the others. No, it was because of what happened after, with Yanojo waiting in a place between time and space, waiting for thousands of years until their Jaharis, their most beloved, found them again. Liriyan, who Lirithael liked to believe they had been partly named in honor of, had found Yanojo during that time and written Yanojo’s song as a message to Jaharis, to guide their beloved back to them and set them free. Lirithael greatly admired the two of them - Yanojo for holding on for a very long time in a place that, to them, would have been agonizing to bear alone… Jaharis who, even after all that time later, remembered their Yanojo and came rushing to free them once they head the Song… or at least, that’s what Lirithael liked to believe. They didn’t actually know if Jaharis ever found Yanojo, because the Song had been finished before that happened. The later compositions of it had added that part of the story in to make it a happy ending, but being a part of the species who had composed the Song, Lirithael knew it was open ended, that the whole purpose of the Song being written had been to be a message to Jaharis. _

_Lirithael wondered if they might see Jaharis here too with Yanojo. Jaharis had been Yanojo’s love before Yanojo had closed the Rift, and seeing as Lirithael had used it to come here, it was still open. They hadn’t wanted to risk exiting the Rift so soon before it was to be closed for fear of being trapped here, so they’d made sure to allow for ample time beforehand. It was about… two years in their host’s time measurements before the Rift would be closed forever. It was possible Yanojo and Jaharis hadn’t met yet. The Song didn’t go into much of Yanojo’s life before the Rift closed, just that they came from the Land of Burnt Trees and had met Jaharis there. Maybe after this Lirithael would go to the future and find a new host that would allow them to find out if Jaharis had ever found Yanojo and freed them. Lirithael desperately hoped so, but they would be absolutely thrilled to see Yanojo and Jaharis happily together in this time now. _

_Now all they had to do was find the Land of Burnt Trees, which was proving to be more difficult than they had thought, because every time they asked someone where the Land of Burnt Trees was, everyone looked very confused about it. Lirithael was not deterred though. It was still a delight to wander among the beings here and listen to all of their songs mingle and combine. They also knew to be careful and to stay away from songs that were very dark._

_They weren’t paying too much attention to where they were going, just wandering around the city after having left the building where they had gotten their current host, following the songs they were more drawn to without a destination in mind. They weren’t even sure how long they had been wandering around for, paying no attention to any track of time._

_They were crossing a street when someone walking from the other direction dropped something in front of them as they passed by. Lirithael paused, noticing that the person's song was a little bit darker than the other songs that were around, but then reached down to pick the object up anyway and call out to the person before they got too far away. It was a little silver cube, small enough that Lirithael could have held it in one palm. _

_They never managed to pick it up, though. The second their fingers made contact with it, they felt their essence being ripped out of their host and sucked into the box, inwardly screaming at the horrific, painful sensation. The pain, thankfully, only lasted for a short but intense moment. Reeling, Lirithael waited a moment longer, expecting sight and sound to come back to them shortly so they could get their bearings._

_They waited. And waited. And waited._

_When they began to realize they were now trapped somewhere without sight, and without sound, they began to inwardly scream again. This time, they did not stop._


	2. Chapter Two

As Jack pulled the SUV up to the crime scene, he saw Tosh spot them coming and hurry over to meet them. “Anything?” Jack asked as he hopped out, eyes surveying the area.

“Owen’s using my laptop to analyze the blood we found inside. I need to use the computer in the SUV to access the CCTV, see if there’s any record of what happened,” she explained, already opening the back door but pausing when she saw Araellune and Eluael sitting back there. Tosh looked at Jack in puzzlement, wondering who the strangers were.

“They’re on our side,” Jack reassured. “They came through the Rift first, and they’re being hunted. We think whoever was after them sent their alien tiger after Ianto. You two,” he said as he pointed to Araellune and Eluael, “stick with Gwen.” Even if the Audimus seemed mostly harmless, he still wasn’t going to completely let down his guard around them or let them out of his or the team’s sight… not until he knew Ianto was safe, at the very least.

“I can stay here and assist with any computer requirements,” Eluael spoke up. “This host was very familiar with computers. He liked to build them.”

Tosh shot Jack another look that said she definitely required a more detailed explanation later on, but wordlessly exchanged places with Araellune as the alien slipped out, more focused on finding Ianto as soon as possible.

“Fine,” Jack said curtly. “Tosh?” He waited until Tosh looked at him, nodding slightly at Eluael. “You good?” Tosh nodded back as she activated one of the computers, getting the message loud and clear. _Keep an eye on that one._

Jack quickly walked over to the car, Gwen hanging back to walk side by side with Araellune. “What have you found, Owen?” he asked once he was able to see the doctor leaning inside and examining the driver’s seat area. Jack was perturbed to see that the front door had been completely ripped off its hinges and was lying on the ground nearby.

Owen had on a pair of medical gloves and was holding a piece of torn fabric between tweezers. “The glass is broken on the inside of the window, so whatever attacked him burst through from the outside,” he stated, getting straight to business. “The bad news is, some of the blood is definitely Ianto’s. The good news is, it’s not all his. The rest of it is some sort of alien DNA we don’t have on file. That’s what the darker colored blood is. I found his gun lying on the ground by the front door, and there was a few discharged bullets scattered around on the inside too; he fought back, good man. There were more bullets missing from his gun than I found, so I bet he managed to get at least a few good solid hits on whatever the hell this thing was.” There was a hint of admiration in his tone at Ianto doing his best to hold the creature at bay for as long as he could have. Gone was any of the usual banter he might have thrown in as he and Jack spoke, and Jack was the same - one of their own was in danger, and they were both completely serious.

“What’s that?” Jack asked, pointing to the piece of fabric Owen was holding.

“Looks like the thing grabbed him and yanked him out through the front window. I’m pretty sure it’s a torn piece of his suit. Snagged on the broken glass,” Owen explained as he dropped it into a small evidence bag, in case they needed it later.

“Let me see.” Jack held out his hand, and Owen passed the bag over so he could take a better look at it. Noting the color and pattern that was stained darker with a splotch of blood, he confirmed grimly, “Yeah, that’s the suit he was wearing today.”

“Jack!” Tosh called out, causing him to whip his head around in her direction. “I’ve got it!”

“Keep looking for anything else that might help,” Jack instructed as he handed the bag back.

“Will do,” Owen replied with a nod while Jack slipped out to hurry back over to the SUV.

Placing an arm against the side of the vehicle to lean in closer and get a better look, Jack peered at the computer screen Tosh was looking at.

“Here,” Tosh said as she hit play on the footage she’d uncovered. “It’s not a good angle, but you can still mostly see what happens. This man just steps out into the road to block the way...” she commented as the screen showed Ianto’s car hitting a large, heavy-set man head on.

“That’s got to be the Drudge,” Jack stated.

“That’s what Eluael said,” Tosh agreed. “And from what he said about these Umbra Hunters, it makes sense because...” She waited until the video played a bit more, showing Ianto getting out of his car to check on the man, being grabbed by the ankle, then breaking free with a well-placed kick before hurrying back to his car. “There!” Tosh pointed at the man as he got up and just stood there, but the video showed something slinking out from the man’s shadow and stealthily creeping up to the bonnet of Ianto’s car. “Eluael said that the Umbra Hunters can morph their bodies to fit inside the Drudge’s shadow, as long as there is one.”

“That’s what I’ve heard,” Jack agreed, watching grimly as the cat jumped up on the bonnet, broke through the glass, and lunged at Ianto inside. His hands curled into tight fists as Ianto was dragged halfway out the front window by his left arm, holding his gun with his free hand. Ianto must have hit the thing like Owen had guessed, because the cat spasmed and recoiled, allowing Ianto to sink back into the front seat and fire off a few more point blank shots, making the cat jerk back with each successive hit. Jack felt a surge of satisfaction every time he saw the cat take a bullet.

By that time, though, the man had walked up to the front door and ripped it off completely to get it out of the way, doing it as easily as if he was peeling off a sticker. Tossing it aside, he reached in and grabbed Ianto, pulling him out with a choke-hold around his throat. Ianto tried to bring his gun around to fire it, but the man smacked it out of his hand as Ianto struggled to get free, the weapon falling uselessly to the ground. 

Jack felt a surge of rage and frustration at not being able to do anything as he watched Ianto’s struggling grow more weaker until he went limp, slipping into what Jack prayed was unconsciousness. _Don’t let him be dead,_ Jack silently asked whoever would listen. _Please don’t let him be dead._ The Drudge then adjusted Ianto into an easier position to carry him in his arms, turning around and walking off out of sight. The cat limped after them, disappearing a moment later back into the Drudge’s shadow.

“They took him away,” Tosh said, hesitant hope in her tone. “Not to be grim, but with that kind of strength, the Drudge could easily have snapped his neck, couldn’t he? And the cat, if it can change its size - it could have gotten bigger than that, right?”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed. “I’ve never seen an Umbra Hunter in person, but I’ve seen the end results of a few. They can get big enough to bite a person’s head right off. They definitely could have killed him a lot faster if that was their goal. And why carry off a body? You said they all registered as being human, outside of the cat, right?”

“Right,” Tosh confirmed.

“Then we’re going to go off the assumption they want him alive for something.” Jack refused to think about any other outcome until he had solid proof otherwise, and he desperately hoped it wouldn’t come to that. “Get that footage off the CCTV and see if you can pick the Drudge up anywhere else, find out where they went to.”

“On it,” Tosh said, already clicking away at the keyboard.

Jack stepped away to go back to the SUV and see if Owen had found anything new, nodding at Gwen in thanks when he saw she was dealing with the police, to which she returned with a strained smile. Araellune, who had been standing there quietly but within sight the whole time, called out to Jack as he passed by. “Your companion who is missing… What is their name?” she asked. “Their full name?”

“His name is Ianto Jones,” Jack answered, not bothering to question why she wanted to know Ianto’s full name just then. He had more important things to focus on. “Find anything new, Owen?” he asked as he poked his head back into the car.

Owen held up Ianto’s mobile with a disappointed look. “Won’t be able to use this to try and track him. His Bluetooth earpiece is here, but I can’t find the earpiece for his comms. Let’s hope he has that on him; he might be able to get a message to us that way.” He knew that Ianto could very well be dead already, but he also refused to believe their teammate was lost forever unless presented with irrefutable proof. He and Jack began to discuss other possible ways they could track down Ianto while Tosh continued to look through various CCTVs in the SUV.

Tosh was so focused on what she was doing that she paid no attention when Eluael quietly opened the door and slipped out, moving to stand by Araellune.

“So this is how the people from the ‘Land of Burnt Trees’ works,” he commented in a low enough tone that only Araellune could hear.

“Yes,” she agreed, gaze flicking around to make sure they weren’t being closely watched as they conversed. “Eluael… I fear Lirithael may have placed more than just us in jeopardy by coming here. Ianto Jones… Yanojo. Jack Harkness… Jaharis. Jaharis was known to be from a long distant time period than Yanojo… and _this_ Jack Harkness spoke of hearing about the Song of Yanojo before. The Song will be written thousands of years in the future. Jack Harkness and Jaharis must be one and the same, therefore Yanojo must be this missing Ianto Jones… We cannot tell them about anything that takes place in the Song now; we have to make sure what happens in it still comes to pass.”

“And so we must help them make sure Yanojo does not die yet,” Eluael agreed. “I pray we aren't too late already, and that we'll be able to find Lirithael too.”

“If they have been taken by the same people who took Yanojo, then perhaps the two of them can find a way to help each other,” Araellune hoped. “I do not understand why the hunters would target Yanojo - they have no knowledge of the Song or why Lirithael came here, I am sure of it - but if there is a purpose as to why they took Yanojo - _Ianto Jones_,” she corrected herself, “then let us hope they will reveal it soon.”

****************************************************************************************************

By the time evening rolled around, the only things they had come up with were dead ends, even if they had gained a little bit more information about who was behind all this. Tosh had found some more CCTV footage of the Drudge meeting up with a human male a few blocks down from the accident. The man had looked directly up at the camera and smiled at it, held his fingers up like they were a pretend phone, then pointed at the camera before walking out of sight with the Drudge, Ianto still unconscious in the larger man’s arms.

Jack had sorely wanted to punch his hand through a wall when he’d seen it. The message was clear though. Whoever these people were, they knew Torchwood would have been trying to track them through the CCTVs, and they would call them when they were ready to state whatever demands they had. At least that meant that the chances of Ianto needing to be kept alive went up. It was a small solace, but Jack would gladly take it.

Tosh had immediately tried searching for any records of the other man, even though it was a long shot in the dark, given that these people were from the future. Nothing had turned up, so she’d set the system up to alert them if there was any sign anywhere of either the man, the Drudge, the Umbra Hunter, or Ianto.

There’d been a report of someone calling in about three men, one of them quite larger than the others and carrying one that had been unconscious. The person who called it in said that the other man simply said the unconscious one had been drinking too much, but the person had been fairly sure the unconscious man’s arm looked fairly ripped and bloody even with the dark suit he’d had on, so they’d called it in anyway, stating it looked like they’d been heading out of the city. Jack and Owen had gone to check out the area while Gwen and Tosh stayed back at the Hub with Araellune and Eluael, but the trail had ended cold.

Now, Jack sat in his office, tossing a paperweight between his hands in agitation, trying to do something to occupy himself while the team waited. There was plenty of other things he could be working on, but he couldn’t focus on any of it right now. He’d all but interrogated Araellune and Eluael earlier once they’d returned to the Hub, but they hadn’t been able to give any new information that might help find Ianto. The only connection Jack knew of was the possibility that Ianto had his comms on him, so Jack kept his earpiece in and the line open, praying that he would hear some word from Ianto soon. After snapping at the team earlier, he’d decided to hide away in here, knowing that everyone else was tense too. It wouldn’t do Ianto any good to have them exploding at each other. 

Getting too restless to stay sitting, Jack stood up and walked to the doorway, just to look out and see what the rest of the team was doing. He heard Owen and Araellune’s voices talking from the autopsy bay and saw Tosh motioning towards her computer monitor while speaking with Eluael. Gwen was off in a corner, on the phone with someone and pacing back and forth while she talked. 

A feeling of pride wash over him. Tosh had thrown herself into whatever technical avenue she knew of to try and find Ianto, Owen had hardly cracked any smart comments, and he could see from her posture Gwen was still upset too. There used to be a time when nobody might have even noticed Ianto was missing, but in those months that Jack had been gone, they’d come together as a true team, even if the beginnings of it had been rough at first. They all cared about each other, no matter how much they might give each other crap about things at times. Gone were the days of taking Ianto for granted. They were friends, _family_, and would all do whatever it took to get Ianto back safely. 

“Now,” Jack murmured to himself, “if only we could just _find_ you...”

****************************************************************************************************

“Do I have something on my face?” Owen curtly asked Araellune, glancing up from the microscope he’d been peering into with an irritated look. “I’m having enough trouble focusing on getting anything done right now, and you staring at me isn’t helping.”

“My apologies,” Araellune said from where she was perched on the autopsy table. “It is just… your song is… very different from the others.”

“Yeah, let me guess, I don’t have one,” he tossed out, returning his attention to the slide he’d been studying. “What with being dead and all,” he murmured quietly to himself.

“No, you have one,” Araellune insisted, which made Owen look up at her in slight disbelief. “It is just… ‘muted’ is the best way I can think of to describe it.”

“I’m still not entirely sure how this hearing and seeing thing of your species works – sounds like some kind of synaesthesia if you ask me - but that’s aliens for you, I guess,” he commented.

“Your body no longer functions, correct?” Araellune asked, slipping down from the table to move closer and reach out a hand towards him.

“_Don’t_ touch me,” Owen warned, holding a hand up to block her from attempting to get any more near.

“Our host bodies are the same way,” she began to explain.

“Yeah, thanks, I already put that together from the tests I ran on you earlier. No breath, no heartbeat, not any single sign of life, except you can still talk and move about, same way as I can. You’d better not be thinking about trying to use me as a host, because I won’t make it easy for you, I can promise you that,” he threatened.

“Ah. You feel nervous around us,” Araellune realized.

Owen snorted in denial, attempting to go back to his slide once again.

“You need not worry, Owen Harper,” she tried to reassure. “As I told Jack Harkness, we only take hosts of those who are willing. You still have a soul, and it is _your_ soul. That is what is most important. When I look at Eluael, I can see their song clearly, even if the host they are using is not their own true form. You are the same, even if the song is a bit muffled now. The only difference is that your body is your true form, no matter if it no longer functions the way it used to.”

“Look, what’s the point of all this?” Owen demanded, slapping his hands down on the cart the microscope rested on and whirling to face her. “If you’re trying to tell me I’m different from other people, tell me something I don’t know; something that might be useful, such as – oh I don’t know – if you’re like I am, are you able to heal yourself at all? Because that sure would be handy,” he stated, holding up his permanently bandaged hand. He paused, staring at his palm before he let out a groan at his own unintentional pun. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

“No,” Araellune said apologetically. “We cannot heal. If our host becomes too damaged, we simply leave the host and either find a new one, or find the nearest fissure in time to go back into the time vortex.”

“Of course not, because that would be too good to be true,” Owen muttered. “Look, I’ve come to terms with what I am now; I don’t need a pep talk about it, and if I wanted to talk to a therapist about it, I’d go to an actual therapist. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d really like to finish examining this,” he stated as he waved at the microscope in emphasis, “so I can get the report for it written up so when Ianto gets his arse back here, he can slip it into his perfect archive system instead of needing to remind me for the third day in a row it needs doing.”

“Ah.” Araellune nodded in understanding. “You wish to make things easier for him when he returns. I will leave then.”

“_Thank_ you,” Owen said curtly, turning and leaning back over the microscope while picking up a pen and hovering it over a pad of paper to show he was well and truly done with the conversation, not bothering to confirm or deny her assumption.

Araellune watched him silently for a moment longer, listening to his song for just a moment more, before she quietly started walking up the steps to go elsewhere, a small smile of approval at what she saw and heard gracing her features.

Meanwhile, on the main level, Tosh was typing away at her computer, running through searches she’d already done twice in an effort to try and find Ianto.

“It’s amazing,” Eluael said from behind her, making her jump a little in surprise. “I’m sorry,” he quickly apologized. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s alright,” she reassured with a quick, strained smile.

“May I come closer…?” he asked.

Tosh nodded, scooting back in her chair a little to make some room and motioning for him to go ahead.

Eluael walked up to the monitor and placed his hand gently against it, closing his eyes for a few seconds before a look of wonder came over him. “Simply amazing.”

“What is…?” Tosh asked curiously.

“It’s alive,” Eluael stated, opening his eyes and continuing to peer at the computer in awe.

“It’s an organic computer,” Tosh explained with a hint of pride. “Years ahead of any technology we currently have now.”

“This host… He liked to build computers, but none of them were ever like this one. I can _feel_...” he tried to explain, trailing off when he was unsure of how to. “It’s almost like it has its very own song,” he finally settled on.

“You think so?” Tosh questioned with interest, peering at the monitor thoughtfully. “It does have an artificial intelligence, and it can figure out how to work out some things on its own. Almost like a developing baby, really.”

At those words, Eluael’s eyes went wide, and he sucked in a sharp breath. “Like a child. _The Child of Burnt Trees._”

“Sorry, what?” Tosh asked, looking at him in utter confusion now.

He quickly shook his head. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

“Oh.” The conversation lapsed into silence for a moment before Tosh hesitantly inquired, “Do you mind if I ask you something? About your hosts?”

“Ask whatever you like,” he said with a gentle smile.

“You say your… ‘host’ liked to build computers, and you talk about how you chose these ones because they were in vegetative states, but if they were in vegetative states, how do you know that? They weren’t… Were they actually still alive when you…?” she trailed off.

Eluael shook his head sadly. “I wouldn’t say so, not truly alive. They… Their songs were all but done. They weren’t aware of anything, but we were still able to look into their memories to gain the information we needed, the social customs, the languages they spoke… There… was _some_ part of them still there,” he admitted, “in that their forms were still functioning, and there was still life in them because of that, but their souls… They were not aware of anything at all. I believe a term you might understand is that they were… sleeping and would not ever wake up. Some might say it is not our right to chose to take them over and burn out the rest of whatever they had left when they could not give consent, but we… We viewed it as a mercy,” Eluael confessed honestly. “We’ve tried before to use forms that have already ceased to function, but we can’t access the knowledge we need to interact with others once the soul has left the body, and the forms don’t last as long either once they’ve… decomposed for awhile.”

Tosh listening quietly, taking a moment to digest all this, before her eyes widened as a realization hit her. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Eluael asked curiously.

“I think I just realized where some zombie stories might come from,” she murmured with a little shudder.

Eluael paused, probably searching through his memory for what a zombie was, Tosh figured. “Ah. I see. Yes, that’s possible. Both ways have different problems, but this is the only way we can communicate with others effectively. In our true forms, we can share our emotions with others, but we found that's not as clear cut as using verbal language.”

“Sort of like… reverse empathy?” Tosh said. “Are you empathic too?”

“Only in our true forms,” Eluael stated, “but yes.” Movement from the autopsy bay diverted their attention for a moment, and they saw Araellune walking up the steps back to the main level. “If you’ll excuse me, I must speak with Araellune about something. Thank you for showing me the computer,” he said with a quick smile before he hurried off.

“Oh… Alright,” Tosh said as she watched him go. She sighed a little; it had been nice to talk to someone who was as amazed by the organic computer as she was. Maybe they could talk more about it later; it wasn’t often she got to go on and on about all the things it could do without someone getting bored, and it looked like Eluael might appreciate it instead. But later, once Ianto was safely back. Determination settling over her features once again, she got back to work.

Over in the corner, Gwen had been speaking on the phone with Rhys. She’d called earlier to leave a message and say she wasn’t sure when she’d be home, apologizing since they’d planned to go out on a date that night but that something had come up at work and she didn’t have time to explain it all just then. Rhys had called back not too longer after, apologizing for not answering because he’d been in the shower at the time.

“I’m so sorry, Rhys,” she apologized again as she paced back and forth, too anxious to stand still. “It’s just, Ianto’s been taken, and we’ve-”

“Whoa, hold up, love,” Rhys cut her off, concern evident in his tone. “Ianto’s been taken? That’s one of your workmates, right? Who took him?”

“We don’t know,” Gwen confessed, so grateful that she was now able to tell Rhys about this kind of thing now because it helped to get some of the stress off her chest. “We don’t know, and we know he was injured, and there’s been no leads or calls or anything, and-”

“Shh, shh, shh, it’s okay, love, I understand. Of course you need to be more focused on that. I’ll cancel the reservation no problem, and we’ll just plan it again once your friend’s back safe,” he reassured.

“Thank you so much, Rhys,” she said in genuine gratitude. “I’m really sorry-”

“Hey now, enough with the apologies,” he insisted. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Just letting me talk to you right now is wonderful,” she said sincerely.

“What about food? I could bring you something, if you think you’re going to be there for awhile,” he suggested.

Gwen paused as she suddenly remembered the last time she’d eaten, followed by another pang of stress because that was what Ianto did for them most of the time. “Yeah. Yeah, that’d be lovely, Rhys; I don’t think any of us has eaten anything since lunch. We’ve all been so worried.”

“Why don’t I pick up something for all of you? Let me help you out again, and this way you don’t have to worry about me getting shot or having to pose as a delivery driver,” Rhys joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Gwen laughed softly, her heart lifting a little at her daft fiance. “Something simple and light, please. I don’t think we’re much in the mood for anything else right now, but we’re not going to be as much good as we could be later on if we haven’t had anything to keep us going.”

“I’ll pick up a bunch of sandwiches then,” Rhys decided. “And I’ll head out right away. See you in a bit, love.”

“See you in a bit. And Rhys?” she said with a soft, fond smile, hearing the faint jiggling sound of car keys being picked up.

“Hm?”

“I love you,” she added, just in case.

“Love you too, Gwen,” he said back just as fondly. “I’ll be there soon.”

****************************************************************************************************

A couple hours later, and Jack wanted to scream. How long where they going to have to wait before these people contacted them? How would they even do it? It wasn’t like Torchwood’s phone number was listed in the phone book, what with it being a secret government organization. What if the hunters had already sent a message, and the team just hadn’t discovered it yet? Ianto was trouble, but just how much trouble? How hurt was he? What if he was being harmed even more while the team sat there doing nothing?

No, Jack told himself firmly. He couldn’t let himself start to go down that rabbit hole, because then he’d be so consumed with worry, he wouldn’t be able to think straight once they did get some sort of sign. It was already hard enough as it was. There’d been no change in anything, no alert that said the Drudge, the Umbra Hunter, the man, or Ianto had been spotted anywhere, no more strange calls that might have been about them… Nothing.

Gwen had showed up about an hour ago with a sandwich in her hands, threatening to have Tosh take Jack’s comms offline and take over with listening until he ate it after he’d insisted he wasn’t hungry. He’d stuffed it down, glaring at her the whole time while reluctantly admitting inwardly that eating something to keep his energy up probably was a good idea. She’d left the office with a simple thank you and a sympathetic look once she’d seen that he’d finished the whole thing.

Leaning back in his chair with a sigh, Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and massaged the area a bit. Maybe he should go insist the others go home for the night and try to get some rest with the promise he’d let them know if he heard anything at all, but he got the feeling they would all stubbornly resist. Owen didn’t need to sleep, Tosh would insist she wanted to keep an eye on the monitors, and Gwen had already said Rhys understood she needed to be at the Hub. Jack was certain he himself wouldn’t be able to get any sleep at all either.

Suddenly, there was a small, short noise over the comms that made Jack pause, uncertain if it had been his imagination or not. But no, there it was again… and again...

Jack sucked in a sharp breath when he finally recognized what they were. It was the kind of noises someone made as they were waking up.

Bolting to his feet so fast he knocked his chair over, heart pounding in his chest, Jack prayed with everything he had for a response when he asked breathlessly, “_Ianto?_”

The familiar voice that came back was weak and hoarse, but it filled him with a surge of relief because it meant that the person it belonged to was _alive._ “Jack…?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, I said to someone in the comments that you'd find out this chapter why Ianto was taken, but I'm trying to make each chapter around 5,000 words each, and this one became a bit longer than I thought it would, so you will definitely find out at the beginning of chapter three! It'll start off right away with Ianto's POV and the predicament he's found himself in.
> 
> This chapter was mostly to set up some important foreshadowing for later things in the saga and establish where it takes place in the show's continuity. I also really wanted to show how all the team cared in their own way, even Owen. I remember watching the end of Fragments, and Owen reaches over to grasp Ianto's shoulder for a moment when making sure everyone is okay. That gesture really struck me because it was proof, in my opinion, that even though he and Ianto have had their differences in the past, Torchwood is still a team of people who are friends and care about each other.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big note: This is the chapter where the Hurt Ianto Jones tag and the Mature rating gets earned 8D
> 
> WARNING for the threatening of sexual assault. The actual act is NOT carried out, only threatened, but I wanted to warn for it regardless.
> 
> My original guess was that this story was going to be about 3 to 5 chapters long, and since it's already on chapter 3, it's probably definitely going to be at least 5, maybe one or two more than that. The chapters are ending up being a bit longer than I thought they would be, haha.
> 
> And now, finally, to Ianto!

The path to consciousness was a slow one. The first thing that Ianto was cognitively aware of was… _something_ reaching out to him. Not physically or verbally, but… a _feeling_, almost... a feeling he didn’t think was his. He felt a sense of absolute terror and something that was akin to… desperation? Desperation being directed purposefully towards him…?

He was cold, and he felt completely drained of all energy. He almost let himself lapse back into unconsciousness again, but that feeling of desperation from someone else surged, almost as if they were shouting _WAKE UP_ at him.

He decided to focus on that feeling instead, attempting to work out what was trying to be communicated to him. The more he focused on it and just tried to listen to the feeling, the more he began to get a better grasp of understanding. Bursts of sudden meaning popped up among the emotions, flashes of the words _dark_ and _silent_ coming to his mind.

They were in terror because they were in the dark and complete silence? No, the feeling was more than that… like they cut off from something so vitally important to them that not having it was starting to drive them mad. What that was, he couldn’t understand. Something about _light_ and _song_…? Made sense if they were terrified about being in the dark and silence, at least…

Ianto was distracted by a noise coming from his ear, and he stopped focusing on the emotions to concentrate more on that, fighting the rest of the way back to awareness. There was a noise again from his ear, and while Ianto wasn’t sure what was being said, he was sure it was a word this time, and that the voice saying it was also familiar.

“Jack…?” he murmured hoarsely before he was even aware he was saying anything at all.

He squeezed his closed eyes more tightly when a barrage of words came at him, not quite cognitively awake enough just yet to fully understand them. Then more voices added in, causing him to make a small noise of pain in response. They were all speaking too fast, although he could pick up on the panic in their tones…

“Please stop shouting,” he murmured. “It’s not helping my head. Feels like people are very badly tap dancing on it.”

The voices went quiet for a moment before the first one returned, speaking more softly and gently this time. Ianto gave a small sigh of relief and tried to focus on the words that were being said. The first recognizable one he caught was his name.

“Yes,” he agreed, unable to talk much louder than a mumble. “This is Ianto. Sorry, I’m having… having some trouble... understanding what you’re saying...”

The next word he picked up on was _hurt_, said with an upward inflection. _Hurt?_ They wanted to know if he was hurt?

“Let me… let me see...” he said, attempting to take stock of his body and surroundings. He put together that he was lying on his side, and the reason he was cold was because the ground he was lying on was cold. Since half of his face was being squished into the dirt, he attempted to roll onto his back first and then assess himself for any wounds. His body felt very sluggish and almost unresponsive, but he managed it.

He immediately regretted doing so, the world flashing white as searing hot pain lanced along his left arm when it touched the ground, and he almost blacked out again, eyes shooting open wide into absolute darkness. He was dimly aware he’d let out a painful scream before gasping desperately for air as he fought to hold onto consciousness.

There were more voices shouting in panic again, but he ignored them for a moment, just concentrating on breathing until the pain ebbed into a more manageable level. When he felt like he could finally speak again, he let out a very solid single, “_Fuck_.”

“Ianto, talk to me, damnit!” he heard Jack say through his earpiece. Well. At least the jolt of pain had helped him to wake up more.

“It’s… I… Just… Just give me a moment…” he requested, still breathing hard.

“Is someone hurting you?” Jack demanded to know, his tone promising retribution to anyone who might be.

“No,” Ianto answered honestly. “Just… _really_ hard to move… body’s sluggish… and my arm feels like it’s on fire… Probably not the best idea I’ve ever had, rolling onto my back… I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere about that, but can’t think of one right now...”

Jack swore softly, and Ianto realized just how worried he must be when he didn’t joke back at all. “That’s probably because of the toxin from the Umbra Hunter. It paralyzes your body enough that you can’t move but also heightens any pain you feel.”

“Umbra what?” Ianto asked a bit dazedly, trying to follow the conversation.

“The big cat that attacked you,” Jack explained. “It’s not there with you, is it?” he pressed worriedly.

“Right. The cat,” Ianto said, beginning to recall what had happened before he’d passed out from being choked. “No, I don’t think so… but I don’t think I can see to tell.”

“What does that mean?” Owen’s voice cut through the comms. “You can’t see because you’re blind, or you can’t see because it’s dark?” Attempting to assess any injuries, Ianto recognized.

“Uh… I… think because it’s dark?” Ianto answered woozily. “Pretty sure I’ve got my eyes open...”

“Can you tell if you have any sort of head injury? You said your head hurt,” Owen asked.

“I… I don’t think so,” he said, reasonable confident of that. He’d been out in the field long enough to hopefully be able to tell the difference by now. “More like the regular kind of pounding headache. Hurts inside, not outside. Throat’s a bit sore, probably a bit bruised, but besides that and not being able to really move, I honestly think it’s just my arm…?”

“Can you tell us anything about your surroundings?” Tosh’s voice jumped in. “Anything that might help us pinpoint where you are?”

“So the gang’s all here?” he asked with a soft chuckle.

“Of course we are,” Gwen’s voice said soothingly. “We’ve all been worried sick about you; it’s so good to hear your voice, Ianto. Now tell us what you can, yeah? So we can come and get you as soon as possible.”

“It’s, uh...” Ianto swallowed in an effort to wet his dry throat a bit more before taking in more details about his surroundings, focusing on other senses besides sight. “Smells like dirt. Dirt ground, dirt walls judging by the sound reverberation. Damp. No windows, can’t see a door. Maybe some kind of cellar?” he guessed. Turning his head to the side slowly, Ianto strained to see anything in the darkness. “Can’t hear or smell anything else...”

“Can you lift your unhurt arm up?” Jack asked, suddenly sounding more worried.

“Why?” Ianto questioned in puzzlement.

“Just lift your arm up and see if you can feel anything around you,” Jack insisted.

_Like walls_, Ianto silently filled in the blanks. He almost choked as terror raced through him, breath coming more quickly again as he reached out with his good arm, praying that he wouldn’t hit any walls, that he hadn’t been _buried alive._

It took a moment to sweep his arm out in front of him in a wide half-circle, what with the paralyzing toxin still working against him, but he let out a huge sigh of relief when he finally managed to do so without touching anything. “No. Room’s at least bigger than my arm reach.”

He heard Jack breath a sigh of relief as well. “Okay. Is there anything else you can remember between when you were attacked and before you woke up just now?”

Ianto searched back through his memory for a hint of anything that might be able to help them find him, but the only thing that came to mind was the feeling he was missing something obvious… “No,” he said in disappointment. “Nothing I can think of at the moment. But I feel like I’m forgetting something…” He should probably mention those emotions he was feeling from someone else earlier, but Jack was already talking again.

“Try and think of it,” Jack implored. “Anything at all. I’ll stay on the comms and keep talking to you until we find you; you’re not alone, Ianto.”

Suddenly, what he’d been trying to piece together hit him like a ton of bricks, and he let out a sharp gasp. _The comms._

“Ianto? Are you okay?” Jack asked worriedly.

“_The comms_,” Ianto hissed. “That’s what I – Jack, I wasn’t _wearing_ mine, I didn’t have it in, let alone _on_, so _how did it get there_?”

There was a lapse of silence on the other end, so Ianto forged on. “They must be listening, they’ve probably been listening this _whole time_, you’ve _got_ to cut the connection, I -” he said frantically as he struggled to lift his hand up and get the earpiece out, to turn it off or smash it or _something_ as the realization he was most likely intended to be used as bait sunk in. He was _not_ willingly going to let anyone on the team put themselves in danger for his sake.

He could hear Jack and the others shouting now, urging him to hang on, to not shut the comms off, but he was determined, focused on keeping them from any harm.

Then a door opened and light spilled into the room, causing Ianto to cry out and squeeze his eyes shut at the sudden blindness it caused.

“Now, now, now, we can’t have that,” a male voice tutted as he came closer, Ianto also hearing it clearly through the comms as well. How was he doing that…? “You were having such a lovely conversation, don’t want to end it now, do we? Grunt,” the voice said with a snap of fingers. “Bring our guest out where there’s a little more light.”

Ianto struggled to move as he felt a large hand grasp the front of his suit and shirt, but he could only managed to writhe a bit before he was dragged across the ground. The movement made his arm feel like it was being dragged over burning hot coals, and he couldn’t hold back the scream that spilled forth because of it.

He could hear Jack and the others shouting frantically again, but he couldn’t focus on what they were saying, once more too focused on trying not to black out. He wasn’t dragged very far before he was dumped unceremoniously flat onto his back. There was a single light hanging above him now, and he blinked his watering eyes quickly to get them to adjust to it while he gasped for air, unsure if the bright spots he was now seeing were because of the light or the pain.

“Leave him alone!” he heard Jack shout, and he took in another shuddering breath before he tried to speak, to reassure.

“I’m fine,” he gasped out. “Jack, I – I’m fine, it’s fine.”

“Well, aren’t you a brave one?” a man who looked to be on the cusp of middle age with very short shock white hair and iridescent blue eyes said as he leaned over Ianto, reaching down to pat his cheek.

Ianto jerked his head away and glared back at the man angrily.

“Oh, you’re definitely a fighter,” the man said with a chuckle, standing back upright. “And smart too. Quick thinking, noticing that about your communication devices. Hope you don’t mind that we messed with it a little once we found it on your person when we searched you earlier. We were going to call your friends at your base, but when we found your little piece of equipment, we thought it would be much more fun to rig up our own little device and join in on the connection, so we could listen and see what happened that way.”

Ianto was only half paying attention to what the man was saying, eyes already roaming about the room. They were definitely underground in some sort of cellar, the room containing very little in the way of furnishings. He saw the large man who had attacked him earlier standing in the corner, giving him that same unnerving stare but otherwise unmoving. There was a younger man around Ianto’s own age with black hair that had a stripe of dark blue running through the middle of it, peering at Ianto curiously with green eyes while he sat perched on a long wooden table with some sort of advanced-looking computer on it. There was a young woman standing in another corner with her arms crossed, age-wise looking to be somewhere in between the two new men, her dark hair pulled back up in a ponytail, and her gray eyes looking at Ianto without any sort of compassion. They were all dressed in overalls and simple shirts, like they were some sort of mechanical crew.

Deciding that getting information about what they looked like to the team was the best thing to do in case they started to cause trouble elsewhere, Ianto started to describe them quickly. “There’s four of them – the man from before, from the car crash; another with white hair and -” He was abruptly cut off when the man with white hair stomped down on his injured arm, causing him to yell out again.

“_Don’t_ do that again,” the man warned crossly, waving a finger in front of Ianto’s face. “You have a purpose being here, and it’s _not_ to give your friends information on how to find us more easily.”

“What do you want with Ianto?” Jack demanded, seething with rage.

“Well, at first, we were just going to grab the first one of you we came across to use as bait, and since he just so happened to be the closest at the time, that’s what we did,” the man stated. “We know the creatures we’ve been tracking approached you for help, so we wanted to make a simple trade; we already have one, so you give us the other two, and we’ll give you your friend back. However, since then, my friend Zav here who is very good at hacking things learned a little something interesting, given that the technology of this current time period is extremely primitive compared to ours.”

“And what’s that?” Jack asked shortly, not in the mood for any story time.

“First - I,” the man said, his tone going from false cheer to vicious furor by the end of the sentence, “want to make sure I’m speaking to that _fucking_ Time Agent.”

Jack was silent for a moment, before he confirmed warily, “That’s me.”

“Genalara,” the man continued, that same fury still in his tone. “You probably have no idea who she was, but I remember you. The name’s Sylas. I remember you getting in the way of a gig we had set up, putting a stop to it before we were even able to meet up with the dealer. It went drastically wrong as we tried to escape. The dealer sold us out, and the ship got damaged by taking some hits as we ran from the authorities. We managed to get off planet before we realized it’d even been damaged because we were _running for our fucking lives_. Zav, Tani, and I got into escape pods, and I thought Gena was already in one too, but no, she’d stayed behind to try and salvage the ship. She _died_ screaming as it burned and broke apart,” he said, practically spitting the words out now.

“If this is about me, then - ” Jack started to say, but Sylas cut him off, hissing back.

“_Shut up!_” he demanded sharply. “You’ll _shut up_ until I’m finished talking!” He followed it up with an unhinged laugh, pacing around Ianto now. “See, what Zav found was quite a decent amount of footage of you getting nice and _cozy_ with this man here. Looks like you had some _lovely_ dates. I thought that the gods _must_ be smiling on me if they deliver the lover of the man responsible for the death of mine right into my hands. So no, I don’t want to make the trade quite just yet. I want you to listen to your lover scream in agony for a good long while first before that, like I had to listen to Genalara.”

“I don’t even remember that!” Jack protested. “And if the ship was damaged by the authorities, then I had nothing to do with it! You said the dealer was the one who sold you out; Ianto’s innocent!”

“Oh, I already took care of the dealer,” Sylas stated as he pulled a sharp-looking knife out from his pocket and looked at it thoughtfully, still pacing around Ianto.

Ianto kept an eye on it nervously, steeling himself for whatever might happen next, but Sylas just continued to walk around him for the time being.

“We took care of all of the authorities who were working that day too, didn’t we, team? We just could never find _you_,” Sylas explained. “I only saw you from afar, never knew what you sounded like, not really. And once I found out you were a Time Agent, well, you could have been anywhere. But here you are now, far far away and helpless to do anything while I have your lover here to do whatever I please with.”

“_Don’t_,” Jack said raspily before he spoke in a more clear but still desperate tone. “Don’t hurt him; I’ll do anything you want - if you want revenge against me, then take me instead - you can torture me, whatever you want, _I don’t care_ \- just let him go!”

“Oh, I do want to torture you,” Sylas said easily, lapsing back into a calmer tone now. “But it’s much more fun to torture you this way before we make this trade, because I do very much want to make the trade still, so you can rest assured, I promise I’ll keep your lover alive. Unbroken, on the other hand...”

“Jack,” Ianto finally said, breaking his silence. “Jack, it’s okay. Don’t give in to them, you said it yourself – you had nothing to do with what happened. It’s not your fault.”

“Ianto, _don’t_ \- ” Jack started to say, but Sylas cut him off again with a laugh.

“Now see, there! That’s the kind of talk I want to hear! The noble self-sacrificing lover, because it’ll make it all the more fun later when you’re in so much pain, you’re just _begging_ for the Time Agent – Jack, was it? - to come and rescue you.”

Gwen’s voice came over the comms, Ianto having forgotten for a moment that the others had been listening too. “Listen, Sylas, let’s talk about this, we can - ”

“If _anyone_ else talks on this line again outside of me, the Time Agent, or Lover Boy, I’ll make this extremely short and just put a bullet into his head right now,” Sylas hissed furiously, snapping back into a moment of rage. “Understood? You can listen in all you want, I don’t care, but _do not speak_.”

“Sylas,” Jack said pleadingly. “You don’t have to do this. We’ll agree to the trade, so - ” Jack was cut short for a moment by noises of protest from the team – exactly who or if it even was all of them, Ianto couldn’t tell - but Jack’s voice harshly broke through them, reiterating with no room for argument, “_We’ll agree to the trade_, so tell us where you are or where you want to meet and we’ll meet you there, no fuss, no hassle, no anything. A simple, straightforward exchange.”

“Jack, _no_,” Ianto objected, knowing it was probably fruitless to try and convince Jack to just let him be hurt if it meant protecting other innocent beings but needing to attempt it anyway.

“Good,” Sylas said happily, tossing the knife up so it spun around a few times in the air and catching it easily as it came down while he continued to pace around Ianto. “I’m glad you agree. But I told you, Jack – I want you to listen to your lover screaming in agony like I had to listen to mine, so if you think agreeing to the trade is going to prevent that, then...” He made a few tsk-ing noises. “I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. Now… Zav, Tani, Grunt? Let’s give us a little bit of privacy, hm?”

“I said we agree to the trade!” Jack shouted frantically. “You can even take me as a hostage instead!”

“Jack,” Ianto said, feeling a strange sort of calm settle over him as he watched the other three people leave the room, inwardly steeling himself for whatever was about to happen next. “It’s okay.”

“_Ianto_,” Jack said back, his voice cracking, Ianto hating how he sounded so furious at himself for being so helpless.

“Now let’s see...” Sylas mused once they were alone, moving to stand by Ianto’s feet. “I’ve got a pretty good imagination, so I can think of quite a few things I could do… I think the most fun option though, since I assume you’re… _intimately_ acquainted with each other, is to send your lover back to you soiled and used.”

Ianto heard a sob that wasn’t from Jack come through the comms, and Jack immediately ordered sharply, “Everyone get off the line _now!_” Ianto was grateful for that; he didn’t want the others hearing what might be coming next, having a good idea as to what Sylas had planned. “I am going to find you,” Jack continued, his voice low and full of rage now. “I am going to find you and kill you as slowly as possible for so much as _touching_ him,” he vowed.

Sylas merely started humming to himself, ignoring Jack completely. “I wonder what position you would look best in? If you’d look better with your clothes all the way off or a few articles left on? I think it might be best to leave you lying as you are now, what with the paralyzing agent from the Umbra Hunter. It might make it harder to move you around, and I want to be able to see your face as you cry.”

“Would you stop talking and _get on with it_ if you’re going to?” Ianto said tightly, jutting his chin out as much as he could while glaring at Sylas to show that he wasn’t terrified.

That made Sylas pause for a moment and look down from where he’d been standing in slight confusion. “Are you actually _eager_ for me to take you?” he questioned incredulously.

“You want to break me to break Jack,” Ianto stated. “Well, I can guarantee you, forcing yourself on me won’t do it, and I _will not_ make it easy for you if you try.” He said it with as much resolution as he could muster, staring Sylas defiantly in the face the whole time, his eyes never wavering away. “I’ve worked for Torchwood for years now. I was there at the fall of Torchwood London. Calling it a bloodbath doesn’t even begin to do it justice. 27 survivors out of 823 people, and I’m one of them. I’ve been held captive by cannibals that threatened to eat me. I’ve seen and dealt with all sorts of things that the universe shits out. I’ve been beaten, mangled, poisoned, and harmed in numerous ways plenty of times before and nearly died a few of them. If none of that could break me forever, then you are _sadly_ mistaken if you think this will,” he insisted vehemently. “The most it will be is an extreme unpleasantness, so if your purpose is to break me by doing this, then you are _wasting your time_.”

There was a moment’s pause before he heard Jack breathlessly say, “_Ianto_,” but this time, Jack’s voice was filled with nothing but pride.

Sylas looked down at him, blinking almost stupidly and saying nothing, like he couldn’t believe that Ianto wasn’t showing any sign of fear even though he’d threatened him with something horrible. Then his face twisted into one of anger, and without a word, he stalked off towards the door.

Ianto closed his eyes and letting out a long, shuddering breath, feeling himself start to shake as the adrenaline rush he’d just had began to wear off. “Jack,” he whispered, needing to hear the other’s voice to keep him grounded for a moment. As much as he had been truthful about what he’d just said, like anyone else in the universe, he still _really_ did not want to have to deal with being assaulted, now or ever.

“I’m here, Ianto,” Jack leapt to reassure. “I’m here.”

It was all Jack was able to say, though, because in that short amount of time, Sylas had reached the door and flung it open so hard it banged against the wall, making Ianto jerk in surprise and hiss sharply at the pain the movement caused. “Grunt!” Sylas screamed out in rage, “get in here!”

The man named Grunt – appropriately named, Ianto realized, because that was all he did whenever anyone spoke to him – shuffled back into the room and went to loom over Ianto alongside Sylas.

“_Fine_,” Sylas said viciously, sneering down at Ianto again. “If that won’t work, I’ll go with my second option. Grunt,” he snapped at the other man, his mouth curling up into a twisted smile that made Ianto’s heart start pounding with alarm. “Bring Kitty out. Let it know it can use our guest as a chew toy for awhile, but it is _not_ to kill him, understand?”

Grunt nodded with a grunt of acknowledgment, and Ianto’s eyes went wide as he saw the cat that had attacked him earlier appear seemingly out of thin air from the dark area behind the man. Even though he _knew_ he’d put at least a few bullets into it, it looked completely unharmed now.

“Oh god,” he murmured before he could stop himself, remembering just how much it had hurt when the thing had bitten his arm.

He immediately regretted saying anything, because it only made Sylas grin wider and laugh in delight.

“I’ll see you later, Lover Boy,” Sylas stated as he turned and walked away.

“Jack,” Ianto said with a hint of panic as the cat started to slowly slink its way towards him. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Ianto,” Jack immediately soothed. “I’m still here. I’m not going anywhere. You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m not going to leave you.”

“I’m sorry,” Ianto insisted. “I’m sorry, because I don’t think I’m going to be able to not - ” Anything else he was going to say was cut off as he felt the cat’s teeth rip into one of his legs and rake its claws down the other one like they were hot knives, and true to his word, he let out a painful, loud scream. He tried desperately to get away, managing to roll onto his side and not caring if it made his injured arm burn in agony again because he was already in a world that consisted of nothing but blinding pain. Reaching out with his unhurt arm, he frantically clawed at the ground in a futile effort to escape, but the cat latched its jaws firmly around his leg and dragged him back into the dark room he’d woken up in as he screamed the whole time.

****************************************************************************************************

Back at the Hub, Jack was shaking hard as he listened to Ianto’s non-stop screams. Tears ran down his face, and it was all he could do to not let his voice break as he repeated over and over again, “I’m here,” not knowing if Ianto could even hear him, not knowing what else he could do for the other man just then.

When he’d yelled at the others to get off the line earlier, none of them had obeyed, no matter how shaken they might have looked. They were all determined to lend their support to Ianto however they could, but when the screaming had started, Tosh had removed her earpiece and quickly walked away, hand covering her mouth like she might be sick. Gwen and Owen hadn’t lasted much longer, and it was shortly after they had taken their own earpieces out and walked away that Jack heard the sounds of Gwen sobbing and Owen shouting and breaking some things in helpless fury.

Jack refused to leave Ianto alone, no matter how much it was breaking him to hear Ianto in so much pain. 

Araellune had come to stand in the doorway of his office for a moment, Eluael looking uncertain behind her, only to quietly say, “We agree to the trade as well. Ianto Jones must be saved. We apologize for all the grief we have caused.” They left immediately after to give Jack more privacy, Jack glaring at them as they did because there were quite a few things he wanted to take out on them right then, but he was too focused on keeping himself together so he could be there for Ianto, continuing to say the same words to him over and over again.

Jack wasn’t sure how long the screaming went on for until it abruptly stopped, making his heart practically stop in his chest at the sudden silence. “Ianto?” he asked desperately. When there was no answer, he started pacing in a panic, heart racing now and praying that the worst thing hadn’t just happened. “_Ianto!_”

_Please, no,_ he begged silently. _Please, let me not have just lost him, please, please please._

He heard the sound of Sylas laughing, and his worry was replaced by blinding rage.

“Don’t worry, he’s just finally passed out,” Sylas stated. “I promised to keep him alive, didn’t I? At least until the trade. Now, like you said, I’ll pick out a place for us to meet, and we’ll have a simple, straightforward exchange. I’ll send you the details in, oh say, about an hour or so? The other two creatures for your lover. Best be quick about getting there too. I won’t take any responsibility if he dies from blood loss.”

“You think I’m a monster because you think I caused the death of your lover,” Jack said in a low, controlled, but furious tone. “Well congratulations, because you’re going to get to personally meet that monster now. There is _no way_ I am letting you leave this planet or time without as painful a death as I can give you,” he swore, “so make sure you pick a meeting place with a nice view because _it will be the last one you’ll ever see_.”

Sylas simply laughed again, knowing he’d succeeded in setting out what he’d intended to do once he’d discovered what Ianto was to Jack. “One hour, Jack. Be ready to jump at my beck and call in one hour.” Then the line went dead.


	4. Chapter Four

After Jack took a few long moments to compose himself – moments that may or may not have consisted of a few items getting broken – he left his office to go in search of his team and check on how they were doing. 

He found Tosh and Owen first, sitting on the sofa. Tosh was fiddling with her glasses anxiously, Owen resting one hand loosely on her shoulder.

“Come on, Tosh, you can’t do this to yourself,” he heard Owen say quietly but still insistent.

Tosh opened her mouth to reply, but saw Jack coming towards them and stood up quickly instead. “Jack, I’m so sorry,” she immediately apologized. “I couldn’t pick up on any sort of signal about where they might be when Ianto was talking; whatever tech they have, they must have something that blocks it from ours. If I’d been able to, we could be on our way to-” 

“Hey,” Jack cut her off gently but firmly, reaching out to put his hands on her shoulders and give a comforting squeeze. “Don’t blame yourself. You did your best, Tosh; don’t think you did anything less.”

Tosh flashed him a quick but small smile in thanks for the attempted reassurance; Jack knew from experience – past and current – that hearing the words were much easier than putting them into practice. 

“Meeting in the boardroom, come on,” Jack said, patting her on the back and gently guiding her towards said room. “We need to come up with some sort of plan on what we’re going to do after we know where they want to meet. Where’s Gwen?” He looked around, not spotting her.

“Said she wanted to speak to the two Audimus privately,” Owen stated, looking like he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “Went up to the hothouse.”

Jack had an idea he knew how Owen felt, because knowing Gwen Cooper and how she had protested earlier, she was probably trying to convince the Audimus not to agree to the trade. He motioned for Owen and Tosh to go ahead to the boardroom while he bounded up the steps to see what Gwen was up to...

Gwen was, indeed, trying to convince the Audimus not to simply go through with the trade.

“There’s got to be another way,” Gwen argued. “You came to us for help – you said these containment boxes they put you in are like torture for you – we can’t just-”

“Our true forms are made of energy,” Araellune cut her off. Even though she was standing there with an almost ramrod straight posture with her hands held clasped behind her back, her words were spoken calmly, not a hint of concern about potentially being captured in her tone. Eluael was standing by her side, looking slightly more nervous but not saying anything to go against her either. “We can survive outside of our hosts. Ianto Jones cannot, and he already _has_ been tortured. We will not let an innocent being die because of us.”

“But this is… Trading lives for another… I want to get Ianto back too, he’s my _friend_, but Jack’s not _right_ to do this,” she insisted. “You haven’t done anything wrong; there’s got to be another way, a better way. We have at least a little time to think about this.”

Araellune was silent for a moment, her gaze sliding down to Gwen’s hands and looking at them thoughtfully before she spoke again. “You wear a ring on your left hand. In your culture, that means you are committed to someone special to you, yes?”

“Yes...” Gwen agreed, not quite sure where this was going.

“Imagine if it was them – this person you treasure – in Ianto Jones’s situation, and you were in Captain Jack Harkness’s,” Araellune said simply. “Would you not trade a stranger’s life to get your loved one back?”

Gwen took in a sharp breath, looking taken aback by the question and not being able to answer immediately. “It’s… Rhys and I are different, we’re _engaged_, we...” she protested, knowing it sounded weak even to her ears. 

“Is it a requirement for humans to be engaged in order for them to care deeply about each other?” Araellune asked, said again in a simple tone, like she already knew the answer but wanted Gwen to acknowledge it too.

“… No,” Gwen answered quietly, looking away now.

“Then how do you know? I can only assume from your words that you believe Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones do not care about each other as deeply as you care about your Rhys. But, again I ask, how do you really know?” Araellune pushed.

“Gwen!” Jack called out, rapping on the door to the hothouse and making her jump in surprise before she could give a response to Araellune. “Meeting in the boardroom, let’s go,” he instructed as he opened the door. “You two as well,” he added, pointing at the two Audimus.

Araellune and Eluael wordlessly filed out of the room, not even looking phased at the interruption. As Gwen quickly followed after them and walked by Jack, she took a quick glance at him. Even though he was staring back at her with a mostly masked expression, his eyes… From the intensity in them alone, she got the feeling he had heard at least some of that conversation, and that it didn’t matter at all what she thought right now – he was going to do whatever he needed to in order to get Ianto back.

The rest of the hour that passed was mostly filled with discussion once they’d gathered in the boardroom, although Gwen did once again try to get them to think of another way without simply handing the Audimus over. Araellune was still insistent about agreeing, and Jack stated that it would be fine regardless of what happened because he wasn’t going to let Sylas and his crew get away anyway, so even if the Audimus did get trapped in the containment boxes Sylas and his people had, they wouldn’t be there for very long. Gwen asked Eluael about how he felt about all this since he hadn’t said a word otherwise, but after a pause, Eluael looked at her and stated softly but with conviction, “We will do whatever it takes to save Ianto Jones.”

They couldn’t really put together a solid plan with what little information they had, and nobody was very content about having to make it up on the fly, not with lives at risk, so Jack stated that they’d put together a more concrete one once they knew the layout of the location they were going to be meeting at.

They got all the gear together that they might possibly need so they’d be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice… then it was a waiting game until they were contacted again.

Jack went back to pacing in his office while everyone waited, the others milling about nearby so they could be in earshot.

When someone made a hemming sound in Jack’s earpiece, he immediately answered. “Sylas?”

“Hello, Jack,” Sylas said pleasantly. “Ready to make our little trade?”

“Yes,” Jack stated shortly, getting straight to business as Owen, Gwen, and Tosh came to stand near the doorway to his office. “Where do you want to meet?”

Sylas heaved a sigh. “Here’s the thing, Jack. It’s getting very late, and I’m tired. I’m sure you’re tired too. So I’m going to propose that we put off our meeting until tomorrow morning. I’ll leave a message for you then about where to meet.”

“_No!_” Jack protested, pounding a fist down onto his desk. “You said one hour, it’s been an hour!”

“And I’m the one who has your lover bloodied up in a cellar,” Sylas answered gleefully. “I’m sure he’ll last the night; he’s not bleeding out _that_ quickly.”

“You don’t need to do this, you got what you wanted, and you’ll get the rest of what you want; we’ll make the trade so just _tell us where you are_!” Jack yelled in anger and desperation.

“Have a good night, Jack,” Sylas taunted before there was silence.

“_No!_" Jack responded frantically. "Get back here, you – Sylas?! _Sylas!_” 

When there wasn’t a reply, Jack turned and punched the brick wall with a furious shout.

“Jack!” The team came rushing in, Gwen reaching for Jack’s now-bloodied hand, but he stepped away, not caring about the pain or any shattered bones.

“What it is, what did they say?” she pressed.

“Tomorrow,” Jack bit out, clenching his hurt fist so the pain would give him something to focus on. “They’re pushing it to tomorrow morning.”

“No,” Tosh whispered, looking horrified.

“What? You’ve got to be shitting me!” Owen raged.

“We can’t wait that long, we’ve got to-” Gwen started to protest, but Jack cut her off.

“Go home,” he ordered tightly.

“What?!” Gwen cried out incredulously. “Jack, we can’t possibly-”

“I said _get out!_” Jack yelled louder.

“I can run something,” Tosh immediately put in, “check the programs again, there might have been-”

“There is _nothing we can do!_” Jack shouted over all of them. He took in a deep breath to try and calm himself down a little. “There is _nothing_ we can do,” he stressed, no longer yelling but punctuating every word. “We’ve run every scan we can think of, done everything we can to try and find out where they are, tried every trick we know of on how to track them, _everything_, and there’s been nothing. No sign. Zilch. They’re professional crooks; they know how to stay hidden, and they’re too good at covering their bases. They’re in control, and they know it. So _go home._ Get some rest. Tomorrow, I want you all back here at sunrise, and I need you all at your best. This is Ianto’s life we’re talking about.”

“And what if they still don’t tell us where they are or where they want to meet?” Gwen pushed.

“We’ll worry about that if it happens,” Jack said in such a way that gave the others the impression he already had a back-up plan in case of that situation, but he knew they weren’t going to like it, so he was keeping it to himself for now.

“Jack-” Gwen tried to say, but Jack cut her off again, looking at her, Tosh, and then Owen with an expression that suggested he might just physically haul them out if they didn’t leave.

“Go. Home,” he insisted. “I can keep an eye on things, and I’ll let all of you know if there’s any change in anything.”

“But your hand...” Gwen waved at his bleeding fingers. “And what about Araellune and Eluael?”

“It’ll heal,” Jack stated carelessly. “I can patch it up in the mean time, and I’ll keep an eye on the Audimus.”

“I’ll take care of your hand,” Owen interjected. “And then I’ll go,” he said to Jack with a roll of his eyes, because he didn’t need to sleep anyway, but he got the feeling Jack just wanted to be alone for awhile. “I’m a doctor; let me do my damn job, Jack.”

“Fine,” Jack said shortly, heading off to the medical bay to get it over with.

_I’ll deal with him_, Owen mouthed silently to the girls before waving them off.

Attempting to stall at leaving, Gwen turned to the Audimus. “Will you be alright?” she asked.

Araellune nodded. “We do not need to sleep. We will be fine. Go home and rest, Gwen Cooper and Toshiko Sato. Tomorrow, we will save Ianto Jones,” she said in the simple and straight-forward tone she almost always had.

Reluctantly, the two women gathered up their things and left the Hub, knowing that a good night’s rest was going to be impossible.

Down in the medical bay, Owen turned his back to Jack while he grabbed a few supplies to use. “Roll up your sleeve,” he instructed him.

Jack wordlessly did as he asked, flicking his gaze over to where Araellune and Eluael had come to stand at the railing. Araellune gave him a little nod, and Jack pressed his lips together into a thin line as he nodded back, acknowledgment passing between them. Jack needed to know that they, the only link he currently had to getting Ianto back, were still there, and so Araellune kept herself and Eluael within his sight to give him that reassurance. Hearing the sound of the cogwheel door opening, Jack also took in some reassurance that Gwen and Tosh were actually leaving for the night.

“Hold still,” Owen said before sticking Jack with a needle while he was distracted.

“Ow!” Jack yelped. “Damnit, Owen, warn somebody before you do that!”

“Yeah, sorry,” Owen said, not sounding apologetic at all as he started to clean up Jack’s hand. “Painkillers.”

“I could have just taken some pills,” Jack grumbled.

“They’ll hit faster now.”

Jack rolled his eyes, and Owen worked the rest of the way in silence, Jack occasionally looking back over at the railing to make sure Araellune and Eluael were still there. They hadn’t moved. He wondered what he should do with them, getting the feeling that they could be trusted to not leave, not when they were so insistent on helping to save Ianto… but was he willing to take that risk? Locking them up in cells for the night would make certain they couldn’t leave…

Jack found his thoughts drifting off as Owen finished cleaning his hand and started wrapping gauze around it, thinking about Ianto, hoping that he was unconscious wherever he was because he had to be in so much pain… He started making a list in his head of all the things he wanted to do to Sylas when he finally got a hold of him, and he’d gotten fairly far in the list when he found his eyelids drooping.

God, he really must be drained from everything that had happened today…

“Why don’t you lie back, Jack?” Owen suggested. “You look like you’re going to fall over.”

Jack made a small hum in response, starting to lean back… then paused for a moment before instantly sitting up straight to look at Owen with wide eyes. “You didn’t,” he breathed out.

“I did,” Owen stated, completely without remorse. “You need to sleep too, Jack.”

“_Damnit, Owen!_” Jack cursed, fighting against not the painkillers, but the sedative Owen had injected him with. He stood up and attempted to walk away, but only succeeded in taking two steps before he stumbled and fell.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy,” Owen said, stepping forward quickly to grab him around the waist and shoulders to keep him from hitting the ground. “It’ll wear off in a couple hours, and I’ll keep an eye on everything in the meantime.”

“I am going to _kill_ you,” Jack swore as he felt himself going under very fast.

“Hate to break it to you, Jack, but that’s already been done,” Owen said good-naturedly. “God, you’re going to make me drag you to the sofa, aren’t you?” was the last thing Jack heard before the darkness claimed him.

****************************************************************************************************

As he started to come back to consciousness a second time, Ianto decided he very much did not want to wake up. Already he could feel pain that was only growing the more he came to. But once again, there was that feeling of desperation and worry from someone else, emotions being _pushed_ at him, urging him to stay awake...

_What are you…?_ he wondered, contemplating if it was also telepathic...

He got a reply, but not in words. The emotions changed, slipping into a steady stream of soothing concern, the desperation being almost, but not completely, replaced by determination.

Not telepathic then, it seemed. Well, if it could project its emotions onto him, maybe it could pick up on his…? Worth a try, at least. He focused on upping his feeling of confusion, not quite sure what he was expecting to happen.

That brought an instant response. There was a bigger surge of soothing concern along with doubled determination.

Alright then. Emotions seemed to be the only way it could communicate, for the time being, at least. This was going to be a bit tricky.

Ianto thought back to before when he’d just focused on feeling the emotions that had been directed at him, recalling that he’d been almost able to understand… He tried that now, doing his best not to focus on the pain. The emotions didn’t change, but as he just… _listened_ to it, a sentence slowly began to piece itself together in his mind.

The concern… _Help?_

The determination… _Want_

No… No, _want_ wasn’t quite the right word, it was stronger than that, more certain. _Can._ And the worried feeling still carried a desperation and strong desire to it that went beyond wanting to simply help. ..._Save?_

_Can._

_Save._

_I can save you. I can save you. I can save you._

Ianto was all for that, but how? He focused on projecting a feeling of agreement but still some confusion, not understanding what… whatever it was wanted him to do.

The emotions pulled away from him, and he suddenly heard the cat growling again.

Hearing that immediately sent a wave of panic rushing through Ianto because he hadn’t realized that _the cat was still in the room with him, oh fuck_. The emotions instantly returned, sending that soothing wave of _I can save you_ repeatedly again, changing ever so slightly to add in a stronger reassurance: _I can save you; trust me, it’s alright. I can save you; trust me, it’s alright._

Ianto closed his eyes tightly and tried to control his panicked breathing better, because it also didn’t make the pain any less. He really hoped that whatever this thing was actually could get him out of this situation, and after a moment of inward debate, he decided to place his trust in it, not really having much of an option to do anything otherwise. He _really_ didn’t want to be used as a chew toy again, and he didn’t want his teammates to get into any trouble attempting to rescue him either. Fighting against the fear he was feeling, he stamped down on it and focused on hearing what the cat did.

The emotions pulled away once again, and he heard the cat growl in irritation. It got up and began to move, making Ianto’s heart start pounding harder, but he could tell from how the growling was moving that it was headed… into a corner, it sounded like?

Ianto heard the sound of a paw being swooshed through the air and hitting… _something_, sending an object thudding against the wall and falling back down again.

What the hell…?

This continued on for a few more long, intense moments as Ianto lay there, praying the cat would leave him alone as it went on growling and smacking the thing. Finally, the object thunked against the wall and landed in such a way that placed it the closest it had ever been to Ianto.

The cat made a huffing sound and plopped back down on the ground as the emotions returned to Ianto, urging him on now.

He was baffled, hoping his confusion was clearly felt. Did it want him to grab whatever the object was? It sounded like it was small… What could it possible be, and more importantly, how could it be useful? Given the situation he was in, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was some piece of alien technology. 

The emotion he felt the first time he’d come to returned, that of being trapped somewhere terrifying without light or sound, along with that feeling of encouragement.

It couldn’t possibly be trapped in something so small, could it…? But then again, Ianto worked for Torchwood. They dealt with strange alien gadgets all the time. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d heard about something small that was able to contain something bigger on the inside. 

Pressing his lips tightly together to keep himself from making any noise, Ianto attempted to reach out slowly with his good arm and feel around.

Nothing. Damnit. The fact that he could move somewhat, though, gave him a little hope and also told him that it had to have been some time since he’d been mauled by the cat. The first time he’d been attacked, the paralyzing toxin had only gotten into him through the bite on his arm. The second time, he’d have to have been hit with a bigger dose of it, and if he’d already had a hard time moving who knew how long after the first attack, he most likely would have been completely paralyzed after the second attack. The fact that he could move now… It had to have been long enough for it to begin to break down inside of him. The team had to be going out of their minds with worry by now. The team... Ianto lifted his hand up to feel around his ear and see if his comms were still there. No, no such luck.

Focusing back on the task at hand, Ianto really hoped he was understanding correctly - that in order for whatever it was to help him meant he had to get to that object, because in order to get to said object, he was going to have to do something he really didn’t want to right then.

He was going to have to move, and more than just his good arm. Ianto closed his eyes and took in a few quick, short breaths to prepare himself, murmuring, “Okay… Okay...” a couple times to gear himself up more before he grit his teeth tightly and rolled slowly and sluggishly onto his side.

The movement made whiteness burst behind his eyes, and he choked back another scream between his clenched teeth. God, it hurt, and the act made the cat growl in warning. Ianto lay there for a moment, taking the time to breath and not pass out again, waiting for the cat to settle back down. The emotions continued to pour into him, bringing him some semblance of comfort, at least. _I can save you; you can do it. I can save you; you can do it._

Slowly, very slowly, Ianto reached out with his good arm and felt around in the dark for the object… only for his hand to come across nothing.

_Damnit!_ he thought in frustration, but again, the emotions continued to encourage him to keep on going. _Okay… Just a bit farther… I know it’s close,_ he told himself insistently. Clenching his teeth together again, he used his good arm and torso to do a sort of wriggle-crawl forward, making another pained noise of agony and taking another moment to collect himself again once he’d moved a scant amount. 

He managed to do one more movement like that before the cat got up and came over to him, sniffing and growling at him. Ianto lay still, his heart pounding with his eyes squeezed shut as he prayed desperately, _God, please don’t, please don’t attack me again, please, please, please..._ The cat bumped his arm, Ianto thanking whoever was listening that it was his unhurt arm before the feeling was quickly replaced by the horror of wondering if the cat might bite the only decently working limb he had at the moment.

But thank god, the cat only sniffed him a few more times before walking back over to a corner and plopping back down.

_Please,_ he begged silently. _Please let me be able to reach it now._

Stretching his fingers out, he nearly cried in relief when they touched a small, solid object.

Immediately, the emotions that had been pushed at him became stronger, turning from encouragement to ecstatic joy. _Open!_ he practically heard them say, the feeling was so intense. _Open, open, open!_

Grasping the object and pulling it closer to him, Ianto blindly felt around it in an attempt to locate some sort of button or latch or other release mechanism. It felt like a simple cube with some sort of pattern etched along its surface, and as Ianto rubbed his thumb against it to see if he could put a mental picture together of what it looked like, there was a click as the top opened up and… _something_ came out.

Ianto took in a breath of surprise when he saw it, its form softly lighting up the darkness with a gentle glow. It didn’t really have any truly solid form, more like being made of a somewhat transparent glowing matter that looked almost cloud-like with a plethora of colors rippling throughout it. The form stretched out into a humanoid-looking one, the ‘arms’ and ‘legs’ looking more like wings or fins than anything else with the ‘legs’ being one single fin-like shape. It floated there, radiating pure joy at finally being free for a moment before that joy abruptly changed into surprised elation.

The cat, not liking that, got to its feet and lunged at the figure with a snarl. It probably would have gone right through it had the form stayed there, but the figure moved before it could, rushing straight at Ianto.

Ianto only had a second to be startled as it disappeared right in front of him… then immediately began panicking again as he felt some _presence_ entering his body an instant later.

_Yanojo!_ a voice said to him from inside his own head. _Yanojo, it’s alright! I can save you! It’s alright!_

_What the hell are you doing inside of me?!_ Ianto demanded, still very much not calming down.

_Please, don’t be scared! I only want to help, I truly do!_ the voice begged.

_Then start by answering my question, if you’d be so kind!_ he thought a bit scathingly before he repeated, _What the hell are you doing inside of me?!_ Was he being taken over by some alien?! It didn’t feel like he was fighting for control of his own body… yet, at least. He was still worried about the cat too – he couldn’t see it anymore now that it was dark again, but he could hear it making noises akin to confusion as it paced around, snuffling the air and attempting to locate what it had just seen.

_I will leave if you are truly upset by this,_ the voice reassured, _but I can see what’s wrong with your body. I can’t heal it completely, but I can stimulate it in such a way that will make the toxins be processed faster. You’ll be able to move again without being in so much pain. I do not want to take you over; I promise, I only want to help. Usually, I would always ask for consent before entering a host but I don’t want the hunters to know I’m free, and the Umbra Hunter can relay this information to the Drudge, the man it's connected to._

Ianto took a long moment to put this information all together, his heart-rate slowly falling back to a more normal pace. _How do you know my name?_ he finally asked.

He felt a reluctance to answer, along with a slight pang of guilt for hiding something.

_Lying to me isn’t going to make me trust you, you know,_ he warned.

_I will not lie,_ they promised, and Ianto could sense the honesty in their words. _But I cannot tell you everything either. I am from the future, Yanojo. To tell you everything might cause the future to be changed, and it must not be. I can tell you that I know your name because I have heard of you before. You are Yanojo, from the Land of Burnt Trees, and you fight to protect the planet called Earth from what comes through a rift in time and space._

Ianto was silent for another long moment, although this time it was because he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. If he hadn’t been lying on the ground from having been mauled not so long ago, he probably would have busted out laughing at how ridiculous it sounded. _The Land of Burnt Trees? That’s what Torchwood is known by in the future? You’ve got to be kidding. Sounds like people played a bad game of Telephone over the millennia. How far in the future are you even from? No, never mind, that’s not important right now. You said you could help me?_

_Yes!_ the voice said, excitement slipping into their tone now. _Yes, I can help you! I will get you back to your Jaharis, Yanojo._

_Ianto,_ he smoothly but firmly corrected. _My name is Ianto. Jones. Ianto Jones. And Jaharis is… I’m assuming you mean Captain Jack Harkness?_ He wanted to protest a bit more, about how Jack wasn’t _his_, how Jack _couldn’t_ be his because of a whole myriad of reasons, but escape was a higher priority on his list right now.

The voice picked up on it regardless, and Ianto felt a sense of sympathy directed towards him. _Oh, Yanojo. Ianto Jones. One day… One day I pray you believe that he is just as much yours as you are his._

Ianto inwardly cringed a little, because that made it sound like there were _stories_ about him and Jack, and he really hoped they weren’t embarrassing or disgustingly over-the-top romantic. He _was_ curious to ask more about them… but later. After he’d gotten the hell out of this place. Switching the topic of conversation, he asked, _What’s your name?_

There was a moment’s pause, followed by a swell of delighted surprise, like they couldn’t believe that Ianto actually wanted to know their name. _Lirithael. I am Lirithael. It is an honor to meet you, Yanojo. Ianto Jones._

_Just Ianto is fine, Lirithael. Wish we could be meeting under better circumstances, but pleased to make your acquaintance. I’m curious how you ended up in here, but let’s talk about that after we get out of here first, alright?_ he thought.

_Yes; yes, I would very much like to talk with you, Yanojo. Ianto. But after you are safe, yes. If it is alright, I will take control of your body and speed its processes up to detoxify it. Then you will be able to move more easily._

Ianto wasn’t too keen on handing control of his own body over to someone else, but… if it got them out of there… _Alright. Do it._ He mentally prepared himself for it… then frowned a little when nothing happened, sensing Lirithael’s hesitance.

_Lirithael? Did you…?_

_It will hurt,_ they said, voice quiet and full of regret. _It will make it hurt much worse before it is better… but only for a few moments or so, I swear, Ianto Jones. Then it will be over._

Ianto closed his eyes and took in a slow, steadying breath. _Alright. Just… get it over with as soon as you can._ If it was agonizingly painful every time he barely even moved his legs or his hurt arm, he didn’t know what it would feel like to have that pain be even _worse_… but he’d take the option that allowed him to get back on his feet and out of here faster, no matter what.

_I am sorry for this, Ianto Jones – truly sorry,_ Lirithael apologized sorrowfully before they took control. Ianto didn’t fight it, the sensation being extremely disorientating at first. He was still aware of his body, could still feel the pain from his wounds, but as he tried to move the fingers of his unhurt arm just to see if he could, he found he couldn’t. 

_Are you ready?_ Lirithael asked.

Ianto steeled himself as best he could, taking the equivalent of a deep breath mentally because he couldn’t actually do so physically. _Do it._

Lirithael had been right.

It hurt much worse.

He and Lirithael both felt the pain together, even though Lirithael was able to push through it and keep the detoxification process going. Ianto felt his body arc almost completely off the ground as Lirithael let out an agonizing and drawn-out scream, matching the unheard one Ianto was doing while trapped inside himself. It felt like burning, like he was being lit on fire from the inside out, every single part of him.

True to their word, it did only last for a few long, intense moments. Both of them had no awareness of the cat being startled back to its feet by the scream, the Drudge keeping guard outside the cellar responding by opening the door to see what was going on. There was only intense, blinding pain until Lirithael had finished pushing his body to get rid of the paralyzing and pain-enhancing toxin… then blessed darkness as they both succumbed to unconsciousness.

****************************************************************************************************

Sylas whistled contently as he walked down to the cellar of the little house out in the countryside they’d taken over. He’d been woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of that Time Agent’s lover screaming in pain, letting the beautiful noise lull him back to sleep with a happy grin on his face.

He hadn’t heard anything since he’d woken up in the morning, so he’d come down to check on Lover Boy and make sure he was still alive until Sylas had the Drudge carry him off for the trade. He was sure the man would still be breathing, at least, since he’d instructed the Drudge to not have the Umbra Hunter hurt him so much he’d die from it. After Zav had done a search about the city, Sylas had picked out a place with the best view in Cardiff, just as Genalara’s murderer had requested. Everything was ready to go, and he’d finally get his revenge for Genalara’s death. That Time Agent had told him that he wasn’t going to leave this time or place alive, but Sylas had his own plan already cooked up for the Time Agent that guaranteed the bastard’s own slow and painful death.

“Grunt!” Sylas called out as he took the advanced lock they’d placed on the door off. “I brought you some breakfast!” He tossed the muffin up into the air as he opened the door and walked into the room, looking around for the Drudge. “Grunt? Wakey, wakey!”

Silence greeted him.

Then he saw the open door to the room they’d toss Lover Boy into.

“_Shit_,” Sylas swore, dropping the muffin and surging forward. The room was dark, but light spilling into the room from the attached one lit it up enough he was able to see the Drudge lying there, utterly still with his throat looking like it had been torn out. The Umbra Hunter was nowhere in sight.

Neither was Lover Boy.

“Where is he?!” Sylas screamed, walking in and flinging his arms out into the dark corners to see if the man was hiding there.

Nothing. Storming out of the room, Sylas looked around… and finally saw that one of the high windows in the cellar had been opened and left that way.

Sylas let out an enraged scream that echoed throughout the whole house. “_Where is he?!_”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where is Ianto indeed? =D I'll give you a hint, it's not what might seem like the obvious answer, bwahaha.
> 
> Apologies for this chapter taking awhile to get out! I'm doing my best to try and get one up at least once a week, but I had a bit of trouble getting this one lined up with how I wanted it to go. The rest of the chapters I have a better grasp on how I want them to be laid out, so they shouldn't take as long as this one did.
> 
> There's a little hint in the last bit there about where the final showdown is going to take place, 'the place with the best view in Cardiff' - I'm wondering if anyone will be able to guess what it is before it's revealed next chapter =D I'm really excited to start getting into the endgame of this story!


	5. Chapter Five

Jack woke up with a sharp gasp, a feeling of disorientation sweeping through him when he didn’t immediately recognize his surroundings as the familiar ones he usually woke up to - either the bed in his bunk or the one at Ianto’s flat.

Blinking at the ceiling, it only took a moment longer before he realized he was lying on the sofa at the Hub with a blanket haphazardly thrown over him. How had he gotten there…? Jack furrowed his brow in confusion while he ran through his memory… then let out another sharp gasp as he bolted to his feet. “Ianto!”

Owen, who had been sitting in front of Tosh’s workstation but had turned around once he’d heard Jack start to wake up, held his hands up in a calming gesture. “Settle down, Jack; nothing’s happened so far.”

“You… you drugged me!” Jack accused, pointing at Owen but not looking very threatening because he wobbled a bit and ended up needing to sit back down.

Owen rolled his eyes, putting his hands down. “Yeah, because you wouldn’t have gotten a minute of sleep otherwise. Great way to be a leader, Jack, telling your team to get some rest so they can be at their best while you do the exact opposite. Look, nothing’s happened, the Audimus are still here, and you needed the nap. How’s the hand?” he asked, waving towards the bandaged limb.

Jack didn’t even bother looking at it. “It’s fine,” he said a bit shortly, still irritated at Owen for secretly drugging him.

“I’m sure it is,” Owen muttered as he crossed his arms and turned back around to keeping an eye on the programs Tosh had set up. “Because what do I know, not like I’m a doctor or anything.”

Jack let out a sigh, holding his hand out palm up to curl and uncurl his fingers. He winced when he did so, but answered honestly, “It’s functional.”

Owen threw a quick, unimpressed glance over his shoulder. “I can get you some painkillers if you want, or you can go get them yourself if you’re too worried I might stick you again.”

“I can get them myself,” Jack insisted, not because he didn’t trust Owen, but because it would give him something to do if he felt he needed some. “Where are the Audimus?”

Owen pointed upwards. “They wanted to ‘commune’ with the plants in the hothouse or something,” he explained with a shrug, and as Jack looked up, he could see both Araellune and Eluael sitting there next to the see-through glass in what looked like meditative positions.

“And there’s been no new news?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Owen confirmed, glancing back at him once again. “Come on, Jack, I’d like to at least pretend to think you trust me enough to wake you if anything did come in when it’s this important.”

“Sorry,” Jack apologized, running a hand through his hair with another sigh. “Just a little on edge.”

“Yeah, you and everyone else,” Owen murmured, staring pointedly at the monitors now.

Jack pressed his mouth together into a thin line, reminding himself that he wasn’t the only one worried about Ianto. He was silent for a moment, then decided, “I’m going to go down to the gun range.” He figured it would be a good way to blow off some steam. “Let me know if anything new happens.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Owen waved him off without another word.

Jack began to walk away but stopped before he was completely out of Owen’s earshot, murmuring, “Thanks.”

Owen merely gave a grunt of acknowledgment.

Spending some time at the gun range and imagining that all the targets were Sylas helped Jack to feel a bit better, but he quickly realized that he’d handicapped himself when he’d punched the wall. He took care of it, then resumed his shooting once he had both hands working once again. It felt like hours dragging by, but it probably hadn’t even been one by the time Jack came back upstairs.

Owen noticed the lack of the bandage around Jack’s newly healed hand right away. “… Jesus Christ, Jack, when you said you were going down to the gun range, I thought you just meant hitting the targets.”

“I did,” Jack insisted, coming to stand behind him and see if there was anything new.

“Ianto’s going to flay you alive when he finds out,” Owen warned. 

“So let’s just not tell him,” Jack said simply.

“Oh no.” Owen shook his head. “You know him, he ‘knows everything.’ He’ll find out somehow, and then I’ll be in the crapper when he finds out I knew and didn’t tell him, and even though he can’t threaten me with decaf anymore, I know from personal experience he has other things he can use in his arsenal to get back at me, and that man can be down right terrifying when he’s angry sometimes. … Don’t tell him I said that.”

“I won’t if you won’t tell him about this,” Jack said with a wave of his now healed hand and a raise of his eyebrows.

“Oh, how the tables have turned,” Owen muttered. “Fine.”

“Sounds like something Ianto would say,” Jack said with a short, quiet laugh. It hurt to talk about Ianto while they weren’t sure if he was alright or not, but it was also something he got the feeling he and Owen needed right then – talking about Ianto like it was a fact that he would be coming back to them and would be fine.

“I’m just filling in with his usual commentary until he gets back,” Owen stated. “Got to make up some entertainment for myself because staring at these monitors has got me bored out of my mind.”

Jack rested a hand on Owen’s shoulder comfortingly and was about to say something else, but movement from the hothouse distracted him. Looking up, he saw Araellune getting to her feet and moving quickly towards the door with Eluael following after. Jack immediately headed in that direction, the strong urge to know where they were at all times not having dissipated. 

He didn’t have to worry for very long, though, because Araellune ran out and went straight to the railing, shouting, “Jack Harkness!” Once she spotted him below, she immediately headed to the spiral staircase and raced down it.

Jack had never seen her move so fast before and could tell that something must be up. “What is it?” he demanded, meeting her at the bottom with Owen a few feet behind him.

“Lirithael!” Araellune said breathlessly. “Lirithael is free! We can feel their presence again; they are out of the containment box!”

“What does that mean?” Jack pressed, wanting more information and hoping it would be something good.

“The bounty hunters – they would never have a reason to let Lirithael out. Someone else must have released them. If Ianto Jones is also there with them...” she trailed off hopefully.

“Then they might be working together to escape?” Jack prompted.

Araellune gave an emphatic nod.

“Can you tell where they are?” Jack asked, feeling a stirring of hope inside of him. However, it was immediately crushed a moment later when Araellune’s face fell and she shook her head.

“No, I am sorry. We can only feel the connection again.”

Jack cursed and turned away to punch his arm harmlessly through the air. “Could Ianto have a chance at escaping if they helped him?” he put forth, pacing back and forth as he started thinking.

“It… might be possible,” Araellune admitted reluctantly. “They _could_ take over one of the bounty hunters as host… It is not our way, though, and would be very difficult; Lirithael would have to fight them for control of the body, and it would take a long time for them to burn out the hunter’s soul... The more sentience a being has, the longer it takes for their soul to be burned out by us.”

“’Might be possible’ is better than ‘not possible at all,’” Jack insisted, turning to face Owen. “Owen, keep on watching the monitors for _any_ sort of message until Tosh and Gwen get back in. Comms on at all times too, and if any of the phones ring, I don’t care who it says is calling, they’d better be answered.”

“Got it,” Owen said with a nod as he went back to Tosh’s workstation. 

Jack followed after and placed a hand on the back of the chair, leaning forward to look intently at the screens, as if he could just will some sort of sign to appear there if he stared at it long enough. “If Ianto can find any way to get a message through, he will. It’ll be sunrise in about an hour and a half. Let’s hope that’s enough time for him to figure something out if he can.”

_Come on, Ianto_, he pleaded silently. _Give us a sign to let us know where you are. I’ve seen you do plenty of amazing things before. I know you can do this too. Just give us something._

****************************************************************************************************

Ianto woke up to the metallic smell of blood and something large and furred… rubbing their head against his while purring? _What?_

Opening his eyes, he came face to face with the Umbra Hunter staring right at him. Letting out a yelp, he sat up and scrambled backwards… taken aback a moment later once he found out that he _could_. His legs and arm still had quite a few bad cuts from the Umbra Hunter’s teeth and claws, and he could definitely still feel throbbing pain from them, but it wasn’t so intense he couldn’t push through it now. The toxin… It was gone. He could _move_.

He also couldn’t feel Lirithael’s presence inside of him anymore. Staring at the cat, he started to piece things together. “… Lirithael? Are you… Are you in control of the cat now?”

The cat responded by rubbing their head against his and purring louder.

Ianto let out a laugh of relief, reaching up with his good arm to give the cat a loose one-armed hug. “I’ll take that as a yes; thank god. What happened? I smell...” He looked around, and his gaze fell on Grunt who was lying there with his throat very much ripped out. “… Oh. Is that your handiwork?”

Lirithael snarled at Grunt and swatted at the corpse in wordless confirmation.

“Good job.” Ianto leaned closer to take a better look, seeing that the wound and blood were very fresh. Based on that, he didn’t think he’d been passed out for very long. Hopefully that gave him some time to figure out a plan before anyone else came to investigate. He was very happy to note that the door to the room was wide open, allowing him to see what was in the dim area a bit better.

He started to climb to his feet on shaky legs with a grimace but almost went back down when he found he was too wounded to support himself on them. Lirithael moved in quickly, though, and Ianto reached down to brace himself against the cat’s frame. “Thank you,” he said a bit breathlessly, winded just from that act alone. “I think I’m going to need a lot of your help in getting out of here.”

Lirithael answered by lying down and looking at Ianto intently.

It took Ianto a moment to figure out what they were trying to get at before he put it together. “Oh. Well, I suppose that’s one way of doing it.” With enough effort, slow movement, and a lot of wincing, Ianto managed to settle himself on the cat’s back. “Let’s get the hell out of this blasted place, shall we?” he suggested, patting the top of Lirithael’s head.

Lirithael made a rumbling noise of agreement as they stood up carefully to make sure Ianto didn’t fall off.

“You know, I can’t help but wonder something,” Ianto thought aloud as Lirithael headed towards the door. “What exactly did you do to get the cat to swat at the little box you were trapped in?”

Lirithael paused, then reached out with a paw to bump it against the Drudge’s body. They did this a few more times before Ianto took a guess at what they were trying to say. “You… prodded them somehow?”

The cat made another confirming rumble, carrying Ianto out the door now.

“But you didn’t have anything you could do that with besides… your… emotions,” Ianto trailed off. “Did you… Did you actually _goad_ them into swatting you by just poking at them with only your emotions?” he asked incredulously.

Lirithael started to give off a very proud and content purr at that.

Ianto laughed. “Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.”

That only made Lirithael purr even louder as they continued on.

Ianto took a better look around the room the bounty hunters had dragged him into before. It still wasn’t very well lit, but there were a few high windows along the walls that told Ianto the room they were in was definitely a basement of some sort. There wasn’t a hint of sunlight coming through the windows, so Ianto took that to mean it was either very late at night or very early in the morning. There was a long wooden table with various pieces of advanced-looking technology laid out on it, half a dozen wooden chairs lined along the table’s sides, a cupboard with empty preserve jars inside of it, and an old ratty-looking sofa with a skirt. Ianto didn’t recognize any of the tech items, smiling a little as he thought about how Tosh would love to get her hands on any of them.

Moving from the room they’d been kept in to the door on the opposite side of the other room was easy-going, but once Ianto and Lirithael got to the door, they hit a snag.

It was locked. Very much locked. Cursing, Ianto tried fiddling with it to no luck, then looked around to see if he could take the hinges off from the side he was on. No such luck either. Lirithael sat down and rolled onto their side a little to encourage Ianto to get off, to which Ianto did while holding on to one of the chairs for support.

Lirithael threw themself at the door in an attempt to break it down… but only bounced off of it instead without it making so much as even a shudder.

“Looks like we’re going to have to find a different way out,” Ianto said a bit grimly. “Maybe if we push a chair against the wall, we can climb through a window…?”

Lirithael looked down at their paws, up at the window, then at Ianto before tilting their head to the side. Ianto got the feeling they were saying something along the lines of _You expect me to be able to fit this big huge body through that little window?_ However, they hooked a paw around a chair anyway and managed to drag it over to the base of one of the windows before walking back over to Ianto and butting their head against him gently but insistently.

“… You want me to get out?” Ianto guessed, studying the window as he rested a hand against Lirithael’s dark purple fur. He _could_ manage to squeeze out through it on his own, he was fairly sure… but Lirithael would still be stuck here.

Lirithael rumbled a confirmation, and Ianto smiled a bit woefully. “Thank you for being willing to put me over yourself, but I’m not going to just leave you here, not after you helped me. Besides,” Ianto cut them off as they started to make noises of protest, “there’s no way I’d be able to get far on my own, not with these wounds. We need to help each other.”

Lirithael made a noise of sadness, looking down at their paws.

“It’s alright,” Ianto reassured. “We’ll find a way out.” He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of another plan. “… The cat was able to change their size before,” he remembered. “They just appeared out of that man’s shadow. Can you do that with mine?”

Lirithael shook their head, then gestured with a paw back towards the room Grunt’s body was in.

“Only works with him, then? Damn. Alright...” Ianto scanned the room again, looking around for what they might be able to use… An idea came to him, and he smiled ever so slightly. “This… This just might work.”

****************************************************************************************************

“_Where is he?!_” Sylas screamed again now that Zav and Tani had come down into the room to see what was going on.

“Calm down, Sylas!” Zav said with his hands up, trying to placate the irate older man. “Even if he did go out the window, he couldn’t have gotten far. He was way too wounded!”

“Not if he had a fucking Umbra Hunter to help him! How else do you think the Drudge got killed?! That creature probably took control of it, and they used it to escape!” Sylas yelled, getting right up in Zav’s face. “This is all your fault! When I said you were a stupid bastard because you somehow managed to get a Drudge on our side simply by being _nice_ to the damn thing, I was mostly joking, but I take it back! You really _are_ a stupid bastard! If you hadn’t thrown the containment box into the damn room to get it away from you, we wouldn’t be in this situation!” he said, waving the open containment box in Zav’s face before throwing it at him. “And why?! Because it was ‘weirding you out’ with the emotions the creature was pushing out from it?!”

“Okay, maybe not the smartest idea, but I’m telling you, Sylas, there is no way they could have gotten out of here except through the window! Tani built that lock herself, and have you ever known anything of hers to fail? Besides, the cat’s too big to get out through that window! They have to still be nearby! Hell, they might even still be in the room right now!” Zav protested.

“In the room right now?! _In the room right now?!_” Sylas raged. “Do you think I’m a goddamn idiot too?! I’m an enhanced human! I can see better than you even in the dark, let alone this room with its shitty lighting! You think I wouldn’t see him if he was just ‘in the room right now’? Where’s he hiding then, in the goddamn cupboard?!” Sylas marched over to said cupboard and yanked it open to pull out one of the empty jars and throw it Zav. “Is he hiding in there?! What about this one?!” he screamed, throwing another jar at Zav. “Is he under the fucking table?!”

“Sylas!” Zav shouted, trying to be heard over the other man’s incensed screaming as he dodged out of the way of glass jars being tossed at him. “Calm down!” He was too busy trying to dodge those so much that he didn’t notice Sylas pull out his gun until it was too late.

Zav only had a second to widen his eyes in disbelief before Sylas shot him right in the chest. He staggered backwards, slumping against the wall and pressing a shaking hand to the wound before pulling it away to stare at the blood. “You… You shot me… You _shot_ me...” he whispered in complete shock.

“Do _not_,” Sylas hissed furiously, “tell me to calm down.” Turning to Tani, he waved the gun at her. “You have anything you want to add?”

Tani held up her hands silently and shook her head with raised eyebrows, giving Zav an apathetic look.

Zav looked back at her pleadingly. “Tani… Tani, you gotta help me, we’re a _team_, I-” Another shot rang out as Sylas fired another bullet into him, and he jerked in pain as he stopped talking.

“You made one mistake too many, Zav,” Sylas coldly informed him. “Let’s go, Tani. Keep a monitor on any communications coming into or out of Torchwood. If that bastard calls them for help, I want to know where he is. I am _not_ going to walk out of this empty handed; we’re still going ahead with what we planned. I am going to _kill_ that son of a bitch Time Agent for Genalara, _and_ his lover if I can get a hold of him again; I don’t give a fuck about the creatures anymore.”

The two of them gathered up the equipment they needed then walked out of the room, leaving the door wide open.

For a few, long minutes, the only sound was Zav’s labored breathing that became more and more ragged as he slowly bled out.

Then a rustling movement from the sofa drew his attention to it. When he saw someone crawling out from under it, he started to laugh weakly, being interrupted by a coughing fit. “I… I _told_ him… I told him you...” he trailed off, still chuckling to himself.

Ianto sat up once he’d pulled himself out from under the sofa, having been hidden by the skirt around it. It had been a tight fit, but he’d managed. Back in the room they’d been kept in, Lirithael emerged from out of the shadow of the dead Drudge, moving forward to plant themself between Ianto and Zav while growling at Zav menacingly.

Using Lirithael’s frame to help him stand up again with his good arm, Ianto used his other to brush dust off his ruined suit as best he could with a grimace. “Yeah,” he agreed. “If it makes you feel any better, you _were_ right. I was counting on Sylas being too bent on revenge to see much reason, though.” Carefully climbing back onto Lirithael’s back, Ianto and the cat started to head out the open door.

“Wait,” Zav called out.

Ianto reached a hand down and placed it at the side of Lirithael’s neck, silently asking them to pause for a moment as he turned to look back at Zav unsympathetically. “You helped enslaved an innocent being and held them in a place that was like hell for them. You were complicit in kidnapping me, then stood back while I was tortured. You can’t possibly expect me to be willing to help you now.”

Zav chuckled raspily. “No point. Gonna die in a bit anyway.” He gestured towards the table. “There’s a handheld circular device there. That’s what we used to channel the rift energy to get here and what we’d use to jump back. Next to it is another device, smaller, like a little button. I know you have no reason to, but do me a favor. Use it on Sylas and Tani. It’ll short out their devices, keep them trapped here. They shot me and left me to die, so screw ‘em. It’s gotta be touching them to work, though, so make sure of that. It’ll short out any electronic device they’re holding, like Tani’s gun. She’s got a pulse pistol. Won’t work on Sylas’s, though. He likes the old fashioned ones with the actual bullets. Hurts more that way and takes longer for the people he shoots to die.”

“Sounds like his style,” Ianto muttered, directing Lirithael over to the table and poking at the device to make sure it wasn’t some sort of trick before he picked it up and pocketed it. “They were talking about some sort of plan?” he questioned, not sure if Zav would spill about it but deciding to take the chance anyway.

“Tani’s good at building stuff, and Sylas is good at thinking of twisted things to build,” Zav explained weakly. “They built a bunch of frag bombs. Radius of the frags is only about a couple meters or so, but they’ll absolutely shred anything within that range, enough so it hurts like hell, and you’ll still die, but you won’t die immediately. Good luck trying to warn your lover, though. They’ve got a device I put together myself that keeps tabs on any communications going in or out of your base, including your mobiles. You can’t call them for help, or Sylas will be able to see the coordinates where the call is coming from and know exactly where you are.”

“Where are they going?” Ianto pressed.

Zav chuckled again, this time more weakly. “Dunno. Just picked out the place with the best view in the city like Sylas asked me to. Some sort of tower. All I knew was the coordinates, and I can’t remember those right now.”

“That won’t be necessary. Thank you for the information,” Ianto said simply, patting Lirithael’s side to let them know it was time to leave.

“You don’t even know where they’re going,” Zav protested, his words starting to slur a bit. It wouldn’t be much longer before he was gone.

Ianto smiled knowingly, looking back at Zav one last time as he and Lirithael passed through the door to freedom. “I run a tourist information shop during the slow hours at work. I know _exactly_ where they are going.”

Breaking out the rest of the way turned out to be much more easier than getting out of that room. It was a house out in the countryside, but once Ianto was able to find an address, he placed it as not being too far from Cardiff. When searching for some sort of vehicle, they came across the bodies of a middle-aged couple tossed out of the back of the house that must have been the original owners; Ianto made a mental note to come back for them later and make sure they got a proper burial. Sylas and Tani must have taken the only vehicle that had been there, so Ianto directed Lirithael to go to the nearest houses they could see, looking for ones with cars parked outside of them and searching the cars until they found one Ianto could spot the keys inside of. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, and Ianto didn’t want to draw a lot of attention being carried around by a dark purple alien cat. 

Thankfully and luckily, it didn't take too long to find a car they could steal, and Ianto instructed Lirithael to climb in the back and keep out of sight after he'd broken the window and gotten inside, driving off as quickly as he could before the owner took any notice. It wasn’t easy driving with his hurt legs or arm, but he managed it enough to not crash, even if it wasn’t the most steady driving either. He really hoped he didn’t get pulled over, imagining how that conversation would go. _Yes, officer, just taking my pet cat to the vet and thought we’d get an early start; they’ve got this strange disease that causes them to grow abnormally large, and I thought I would dye them dark purple just for the hell of it. Oh, my arm and legs? Play time got a little rough, but don't worry, they're just scratches._

Now all he had to do was figure out a way to get a message to the team to make sure they weren’t walking into a trap unknowingly, but if he couldn’t call or text them, he wasn’t sure what he should do. Should he risk putting himself in danger to make sure they were safe? He definitely considered it and it would be something he’d absolutely be willing to do. He also had Lirithael to help protect him now, but having an edge over Sylas that the man wasn’t aware of would be a plus too...

There _had_ to be a way to send them some sort of sign that Sylas wouldn’t pick up on, and it wasn’t until he had made it back into Cardiff and was driving past a street he noticed some people on that he got an idea.

It was a group of three young people spray painting a wall. There’d been a hoodie lying in the front of the car Ianto had ‘borrowed’, so he very carefully peeled off his suit jacket in order to put it on, wincing as the sleeve of the jacket pulled away from the wounds on his left arm. Luckily, the hoodie was a bit too big for him, so it wasn’t painful slipping into it. Pulling the hood up to cover his face, he looked towards Lirithael in the back. “I’m going to need your help again.”

Half a minute later, and Ianto was once again riding on Lirithael’s back, the cat slowly walking down the street towards the group of people. He and Lirithael hadn’t gotten close enough to be noticed, so Ianto called out to catch their attention. “Hello there!” he called out cheerfully. “Lovely morning, isn’t it? Thought it would be a great day to take my pet panther here out for a walk.” Leaning down to speak quietly to Lirithael, he murmured, “Snarl at them.”

Lirithael let out a very impressive roar and swiped their paw with claws out at the group of people just for good measure.

The effect was as Ianto hoped. They screamed and took off in the other direction while cursing the whole time, dropping their spray cans on the ground.

Lirithael carried Ianto up to the wall, and he leaned down to grab one of the cans, shaking it up a bit before hesitating for a moment. He didn't want to write out a message in English because he didn’t want to scare the general populace of the city… Hmm… Well, only about 10 percent of the population of Cardiff spoke Welsh… That should be good enough. Seeing the flash of a camera, he made sure to keep his face turned sideways so it couldn’t be seen but glanced over enough to see one of the people snapping pictures and the others holding their mobiles up long enough to make Ianto feel reasonably sure they were taking a video.

Smiling, he started to spray a message onto the wall.

****************************************************************************************************

Jack was starting to think he was going to wear a path into his office floor from how much pacing he’d been doing lately. Gwen and Tosh had come in not so long ago, both looking like they hadn’t gotten much sleep. Gwen had brought in some pastries for breakfast, and Tosh had brought in some coffee for them all; it wasn’t Ianto’s coffee, but it would have to do for now.

They were back to the waiting game until Sylas contacted them about where to meet, and Jack prayed that this time the man would actually tell them, otherwise Jack was about ready to tear the city of Cardiff apart until he found Ianto, and if that didn’t work, then he’d tear about Wales if it came to that. He wouldn’t put innocent lives at risk, but he wasn’t above storming or wrecking a few buildings or cities if need be.

A sudden beeping noise had him hurrying to the entrance of his office and poking his head out, seeing Tosh rush over to her workstation and begin to type away at it quickly. “What’s going on, Tosh?” he asked, everyone else coming to see what the noise was.

“Something triggered one of the alerts I had set up,” she said quickly as she checked to see what it was. “Let me see… Someone posted something on social media about seeing a big cat in the city.”

Everyone was crowding around Tosh’s workstation now, Jack leaning in closer to get a better look. “What else does it say?”

“It says they were walking down a street when they came across a man riding on his ‘pet panther.’ Then the man spray painted a message on a wall,” Tosh summarized, excitement rising in her tone. “There’s a picture of the Umbra Hunter with a man riding on its back. I can’t get a clear view of him, but that could be Ianto.”

“Did they get a picture of the message? What does it say? What street is this?” Jack demanded, his heart starting to race now.

“They did,” Tosh stated, clicking on the picture of what had been sprayed onto the wall and enlarging it.

It was written in five lines: The first one read _TW_ with the TW underlined, then _twr y brifddinas_ underneath that with two double digit numbers on the next lines, the letter C preceding them. The last line read _-IJ_.

“_Yes!_” Jack cheered with a laugh and a clap of his hands. “That’s _gotta_ be Ianto; I _told_ you he’d find a way to send us a message!”

“Drawing attention to himself with an alien cat,” Gwen said with a bright grin, shaking her head in amazed disblief. “Only in Torchwood.”

“Lirithael must have taken over the Umbra Hunter as their host,” Araellune put in, hope in her tone. “The Umbra Hunters only listen to their bonded Drudges; they cannot be tamed by anyone else.”

“Okay, great, but what the hell does the message mean?” Owen pressed. “And why the hell didn’t he just nick a phone and call us?”

“Those numbers, what are they? _C_... Could they be coordinates?” Jack questioned, still grinning. “Ianto Jones: he gets kidnapped, tortured, and then _rescues himself_ – I am going to give that man the biggest kiss ever the next time I see him.”

“Let me see...” Tosh said, smiling with relief as she did a quick search. “I don’t think they’re a location... _Codes_,” she realized with a sharp breath, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she brought up what they meant in the Torchwood code system. “He’s warning us; all communication in and out is being monitored – that’s probably why he didn’t call – and as for the other one...” Her expression turned more serious. “Bombs. Fragmentation bombs.”

“How does he even remember all those codes?” Owen marveled. 

“Photographic memory,” Jack said proudly. “And he knows everything.”

Owen groaned in response. “God, don’t start.”

“That other part looks like it’s in Welsh,” Gwen pointed out.

“Translating...” Tosh said, running it through a program.

It only took a few short seconds for the program to do so, and once Jack saw what it meant, he understood it immedately, remembering back to a conversation he’d had with Ianto. They’d been joking about Jack standing on top of buildings, and Ianto had asked if he’d ever stood on the roof of this particular one because if he hadn’t, Ianto was revoking his ‘standing stoicly on top of buildings’ rights. 

Jack had told Sylas to pick a place with a nice view, swearing it’d be the last one he’d ever see.

Sylas had.

“Capital Tower,” Jack breathed out. “The tallest building in Cardiff.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was absolutely so much fun to write. I love getting to show Ianto being a bad ass and clever. 
> 
> I tried to do a decent amount of research as I was writing this part, so as far as I can tell, back around the time when the second season of Torchwood was being aired, around 10 percent of the population of Cardiff did speak Welsh and while Capital Tower is no longer the tallest building in the city, it was at the time. I also couldn't resist throwing in the bit about Ianto having a photographic memory, remembering screaming with joy when I came across a Torchwood comic written by Gareth David-Lloyd himself with Ianto stating he does have one, confirming something I'd always suspected. 
> 
> Next up, the showdown at Capital Tower! Nobody is out of the woods just yet, and there's still a few more very dangerous situations coming up before this gets wrapped up!


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm taking a few liberties with this chapter because I can only guess what Capital Tower actually looks like on the inside; I definitely do not have the money to fly across the Atlantic and visit there myself, hahaha. I apologize if the layout I'm picturing isn't entirely accurate; I did the best I could based on looking at maps and pictures of the building because I wanted the final showdown to take place in an actual place in Cardiff.
> 
> I've also gone back and edited a few tiny things here and there in the previous chapters - nothing major, but I noticed there were some small plot holes that needed fixing after the fact. I've also gone back and changed a few of the American terms to British ones because I'm doing my best to try and have everything in British English since Torchwood takes place in Great Britain.
> 
> Thank you for being patient! There should be about two more chapters left, at my best guess! It's getting closer and closer to the final fight!

Jack really hated waiting, especially when one of his own was in trouble. However, the team couldn’t roll out to Capital Tower until Sylas contacted them and told them to meet there, otherwise it might put Ianto in danger again. There was no guarantee that the team would be able to get to Ianto before Sylas found him again since they didn’t know his exact location anymore, just that he was most likely heading to Capital Tower too, and if they started looking around Cardiff instead of going to the meeting place, Sylas would definitely know something was up. Ianto had the Audimus-controlled Umbra Hunter on his side, so Jack hoped that he would be clever enough not to get captured again and keep himself safe until they could meet up with him. Still, he knew he wouldn't be able to completely erase the worry he was feeling until Ianto was back home and had been given medical treatment.

When Sylas contacted them, it was again through Jack’s earpiece, although this time, Jack could pick up on a twinge of irritation in his tone. “You still there, Jack?”

Jack made a circling motion with his finger to the team, wordlessly telling them to get ready to go as he answered. “Yes,” he answered shortly, channeling the worry he still had for Ianto to make it still sound like he wasn’t aware Ianto had gotten free. “Enough games, Sylas; tell me where you want to meet.”

“All right, all right, _fine_,” Sylas said with a mock sigh. “I picked out a pretty place just like you asked. The tallest building in your city, in fact. I trust you know where that is?”

“Capital Tower?” Jack asked, wanting to confirm.

“That’s the one,” Sylas agreed. “Why don’t you show up in, oh, let’s say… 30 minutes. Not a _second_ before, though, or else the outcome won’t be pleasant. Understood?”

“Understood... but I want to speak to Ianto,” Jack demanded, testing to see what Sylas was aware of. “I want to know he’s still alive.”

“Tsk, tsk, Jack, don’t you trust me? I told you that I’d keep him alive,” Sylas tutted.

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Jack answered, his tone dry as he channeled in some frustration for good measure.

Sylas sighed. “I’m afraid Lover Boy is currently still unconscious. I could always kick him awake, if you’d like; make him scream a bit…?” he offered.

“No! No, don’t hurt him,” Jack said quickly, fighting back a light smirk. Yes, it sounded like Sylas hadn’t caught on that Ianto had found a way to contact them. Good.

“That’s what I thought,” Sylas stated curtly. “30 minutes, Jack. And make sure you bring the two creatures. In exchange, I’ll have a nice present waiting for you.”

“30 minutes,” Jack agreed, waiting until Sylas was quiet before he took his comms out for a moment so he could speak to the team without Sylas potentially listening in. He clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, team, either he doesn’t know Ianto’s actually escaped yet, or he does and is pretending like Ianto hasn’t so we don’t know he has. Either way, we’ve got an advantage now.”

“So what’s the plan?” Gwen asked, pulling on her jacket as she walked up.

Jack turned to look at the Audimus. “You two are going to come with us.” He held up a hand to cut Gwen off as she immediately started to protest. “We are _not_ going to hand you over, but if we show up without you and Sylas can see us, then he’ll know something’s off. I’m not going to chance him running off before I can get my hands on him,” Jack insisted, his voice dark. “He is _not_ going to get away with what he’s done.”

Araellune nodded in agreement. “We will do whatever it takes to bring these hunters down.”

Jack continued to delegate other tasks, looking at each team member in turn as he gave them instructions. “Tosh, as soon as we get there, scan the building for those frag bombs – I get the feeling that’s the ‘present’ Sylas was talking about,” he guessed dryly. “Owen, help Tosh with whatever she needs - disarming the bombs, removing them, whatever - but if you see Ianto, you make him your first priority. He might have escaped, but he’s still definitely injured. Gwen, you stick with the Audimus; keep them covered, but help Tosh as much as you can without compromising them. We know there’s Sylas and three others, so if any of you see anyone else, do _not_ let them get away. This early in the morning, I doubt there’ll be many people around, but there still might be civilians inside, so go in armed and alert but use caution. Everybody got it?” He looked at Tosh, Owen, and Gwen in turn, waiting until he got either a nod or word of confirmation before looking at the Audimus and getting a nod from Araellune too. “Let’s do this.”

Jack turned around to walk briskly back into his office and grab his greatcoat, feeling a pang of longing as he slipped into it because Ianto always helped him put it on whenever he was around. _Soon_, Jack thought. _I’d better be seeing you real soon, Ianto._

“Oh, and one last thing,” he said casually as he left his office, checking his Webley revolver to make sure it was fully loaded. “If you see Sylas before I do, do whatever it takes to restrain him, but don’t kill him.” Snapping the gun shut, Jack looked at each of them with something in his eyes that promised dark retribution. “He’s _mine_.”

He was pleased when the team didn’t say anything to discourage him; in fact, they all looked like they’d like to take a few swings at Sylas too.

Going out to their vehicles, Jack motioned towards the Audimus to follow him. “You two, come with me and Tosh in the SUV. Tosh, I want you using the computer in the back and keeping an eye on things,” he explained. “Gwen, you’re with Owen.” He cast a quick look at Gwen, knowing she wasn’t very happy about being split up from the Audimus by the look on her face, but she didn’t argue against it.

It wouldn’t take them very long to drive to the Tower. Araellune climbed wordlessly into the front passenger side of the SUV while Eluael joined Tosh in the back. On the occasion when Jack looked in the rear view mirror just to keep an eye on Eluael, Jack could see his eyes flicking over the computer with interest after Tosh brought it out and started typing away at it.

“Sylas and a woman entered Capital Tower about fifteen minutes ago,” Tosh spoke up from the back once she’d gotten into the CCTV, relaying the information over the comms to Owen and Gwen at the same time. “No sign of the other two people working with him, or Ianto,” she said carefully, purposefully phrasing her words so they could be misinterpreted as simply not seeing Ianto there. “Sylas definitely knows we’re watching him, though,” she added with a twinge of annoyance. “He waved right at the camera again.”

Jack pressed his lips together, also irritated at Sylas but still concerned about Ianto too. He really hoped Ianto was already waiting for them at the Tower and was just keeping himself carefully out of sight. No matter how much he fought against the feeling, he still couldn't shake the niggling worried uncertainty about whether Ianto was still out of Sylas's hands or not. Before he could reply to Tosh, though, a voice he was getting really tired of hearing came over the comms once again.

“And he’s listening too,” Sylas said smugly. “I’m going to be nice, Jack, because I don’t want anyone to get in the way of our little rendezvous. Take it as a show of good faith that I haven’t killed your lover yet too, if you’d like.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack demanded, a trickle of doubt starting to creep inside. Sylas sounded so cocky and sure that Jack began to think he might not be lying anymore. They hadn’t seen Ianto and hadn’t gotten any other sign from him since earlier. What if Sylas really had gotten a hold of him again…?

“The fire alarms just went off inside the Tower,” Tosh suddenly exclaimed.

Jack swore. That could be both good and bad. It would give them a good chance at clearing the civilians out… but then first responders might come into the building to see what had set off the alarms. “Call the police, tell them we’re dealing with it,” Jack ordered immediately to his team. “Tell them to evacuate everyone within a one block perimeter of the Tower; we’ll make sure any civilians still inside get out. Is that acceptable, Sylas?” he asked through gritted teeth, not wanting to put any innocent lives at risk by upsetting the man.

“Fine with me,” Sylas answered flippantly. “I only activate the alarms because I don’t want you spending time trying to evacuate everyone and making sure the place is safe. I’m getting quite bored of this city and would like to leave as soon as I have the creatures contained. I’m waiting for you up at the top. After I get the creatures, I’ll tell you where your lover is, and we can all be on our different ways.”

_That, or you’re trying to speed things along before we realize that you don’t even have Ianto anymore,_ Jack thought to himself. “Where are your other two friends?” he demanded to know.

“Keeping an eye on your lover,” Sylas replied back smoothly.

_Damn_. Jack was liking this less and less, his doubt starting to grow. _Come on, Ianto, where are you?_

By the time they got to the Tower, there hadn’t been any sign of Ianto or the other two associates. Gwen had contacted the police immediately after Jack had instructed to and Sylas had agreed to it, so there were already a few police cars lined up to block the area off, the officers escorting people away from the building when they arrived.

The team and the Audimus entered the building undisturbed by anyone, and Jack immediately started looking around for any sign of Ianto. “Tosh, are you picking up any signs of life?” he questioned.

Tosh pulled out her PDA and began scanning the area, waiting for a moment until it gave her a reading. She shook her head in disappointment. “I’m not picking anything up besides us… but we saw Sylas and that woman go in, so they have to be here somewhere. I might not be close enough if they’re on the higher floors. There’s nothing else,” she said carefully, looking at Jack intently and shaking her head again to let him know she hadn’t picked up any readings of the bombs either.

“Chop, chop, Jack, I can see you through the cameras just standing there,” Sylas said through the comms. “Bring the two creatures up, and I’ll let your lover go.”

Jack stood there, fighting against the doubt he was feeling. He knew Ianto could take care of himself. He _knew_ that. But Ianto had been injured, and surely they would have gotten some sort of sign from him by now, wouldn’t they? Even riding on the back of an alien cat and traveling by foot, he should have gotten there around the same time they had if he had left right away from where he'd left his message to them. So where _was_ he?

What if Sylas had actually captured him again? What if his two other associates really did have him? What if he was putting Ianto’s life at risk by simply walking up there without the Audimus like he had planned to?

Jack turned to look at the Audimus, a truly conflicted expression on his face now as he considered what to do.

Gwen’s eyes widened, and she stepped in front of the Audimus as if she could shield them with just herself. “Jack, you can’t be serious,” she protested. “We already talked about this!”

“Ianto…” he trailed off with a distressed tone, looking at Gwen imploringly and hoping she would understand he wasn’t sure anymore if Ianto was actually still out of harm’s way. “Ianto’s not _here_, Gwen.”

“What are you discussing?” Araellune asked, looking back and forth between Gwen and Jack in mild confusion, not privy to the conversation that was going on between the team and Sylas because neither she nor Eluael had an earpiece.

“Tell you what,” Sylas stated. “You get into the lift with the creatures - _just_ you and them – then come meet me on the roof, and I’ll instruct my associates to put that little communication device back into your lover’s ear. Then you can speak with him before we make our trade. They’ll have to wake him up, of course, but you seem like you need a little motivation to finish this through, Jack.”

Jack closed his eyes for a moment to take in a deep breath and steady himself as he made his decision. “… I have to risk it.”

“No!” Gwen objected, whirling around to face Araellune and Eluael. “He wants you to go with him to meet Sylas!”

“Gwen, it’s _Ianto!_” Jack argued back. “How do we know if he’s safe?! How do we know he doesn’t have a gun being held against his head right now?! We don’t have time for this!”

“They could be tricking us; you could be walking into a trap, Jack!” Gwen insisted, holding her fists up in a pleading gesture. “You aren’t thinking clearly!”

“Tosh, Owen, stick with what we talked about,” Jack ordered, turning away to head towards the lift.

“Jack!” Gwen moved forward and reached out to grab onto Jack’s arm… stopping when she saw that Araellune had already walked over to the lift and pressed the button to call it down. “Araellune, you _can’t_-”

“Your Rhys, Gwen Cooper,” Araellune said quietly, turning her head to look at the other woman calmly. “Remember what we talked about before.” Addressing Jack now, Araellune confirmed, “We will go. If our host bodies are destroyed, we will still survive.”

Eluael took in a deep breath but walked up to stand beside Araellune nonetheless, meeting Jack’s eyes with a look of conviction. “We will do _whatever_ it takes to save Ianto Jones,” he stated once again, as he had back in the boardroom.

“Thank you,” Jack said, his tone grateful but full of sorrow too. “I’m sorry about this.”

“It is not your fault,” Araellune insisted as the lift doors opened with a ding.

The three of them stepped inside, and Jack hit the button for the top floor. He got a glimpse of Gwen wearing a stricken expression as the doors closed.

There was a long moment of silence between the remaining three members of Torchwood before Tosh tentatively asked, “Gwen…? What did she mean, mentioning Rhys?”

Gwen, who had been staring at the closed doors, shook her head and turned back around to face her fellow teammates. “Nothing,” she insisted. “It’s nothing. Let’s do what we planned back at the Hub.”

Back in the lift, Jack, Araellune, and Eluael rode up in silence. If Sylas had cameras on them, then he might be able to see them even if Jack tried to get a non-verbal message to the Audimus. He wanted to ask if they could still sense the other Audimus, but even if they could, that still didn’t mean Ianto was safe.

Jack clenched his hands tightly into fists, gritting his teeth in frustration. He was really going to have to hold himself back from punching Sylas in the face the first time he ever came face to face with the man.

They eventually reached the top floor, and Jack pulled his Webley out, walking out first and making sure the coast was clear before he motioned silently for the Audimus to follow. “We’re here,” he said shortly, looking around for any sign of Sylas.

“Oh, good!” Sylas said pleasantly, still over the comms. “Come up to the roof, why don’t you?” He rattled off instructions on how to get to the door that led up to it from the lift, and Jack cautiously followed them. Once they reached the door, though, Jack held his free hand up to the Audimus and mouthed _Stay here_ to them.

Eluael nodded and looked like he was about to take a step back to wait, but Araellune simply pushed past Jack and opened the door, walking out onto the roof. Hesitating only a moment, Eluael anxiously followed. Jack went after them with a frustrated exhale, still keeping his gun out and ready to fire. Once he saw Sylas standing there, he moved to stand purposefully in front of the Audimus, keeping his gun aimed right at Sylas.

“That’s very rude of you, Jack,” Sylas stated, raising his eyebrows with his hands on his hips. He was the only one in sight on the rooftop. “This isn’t quite the way I thought our meeting would go.”

Jack immediately wanted to shoot those eyebrows right off of his face. “_Where’s. Ianto,_” he demanded with a hiss, his tone making it clear he was in no mood for any sort of game.

Sylas tilted his head to the side a little, like he was pondering on how to answer, but then the corner of his mouth curled up into a smirk that eventually turned into a laugh. “Honestly? I have no idea.” He threw his arms up in a shrugging gesture. “He already escaped somehow, but he _was_ wounded, very very much, so he’s probably bleeding out in the countryside somewhere. So I have a proposal for you. You leave the two creatures here with me, and I’ll just… let you walk away, right here, right now.” Sylas danced two of his fingers across the palm of his hand, mimicking walking. “You can go find him.” 

“Yeah, right. Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Jack wagered, not moving from where he was standing with his aim pointed right at the center of Sylas’s head.

“Oh, searching the countryside for one person probably won’t be,” Sylas agreed, nodding and tapping the corner of his chin in mock thoughtfulness. “So you’d best go and get started before he bleeds to death or dies from hypothermia or something like that. Do you have any man-eating wild animals on this planet during this time period? Who knows, maybe he’ll get eaten by them. Maybe they’re making a tasty little morsel out of him right now.” Sylas grinned, looking like he was enjoying the mental image he was picturing at those words.

Then Jack heard the sound of the door opening behind him… along with a beautiful, wonderful, familiar voice. He didn’t dare look away from Sylas, but that voice had his whole face lighting up with a bright grin as he let out a grateful laugh of relief that was almost a sob.

“Wales doesn’t have any man-eating wild predators,” the voice stated smoothly, “and he won’t have to do any searching at all, because as you can see...” And now Jack could spot Ianto moving up to stop beside him out of the corner of his eye, being carried on the back of the Umbra Hunter. “I’m right here.” 

Even though Jack’s face darkened in anger when he saw bruises around Ianto's neck along with the deep cuts on his arm and legs through the shredded bottoms of his trousers and the torn shirtsleeve, the look on Sylas’s face was nonetheless still priceless to him.

****************************************************************************************************

When Ianto pulled up to Capital Tower, he swore under his breath when he saw a police officer at the main entrance directing people away from the building. It was good that it looked like the building was being evacuated… but that made it harder for Ianto to get inside easily. Driving around to a different side, he pulled in as close as he could, not bothering to find a proper parking spot. He didn’t have time for it, and he wanted to get inside with Lirithael as fast as possible before they were spotted by any more people. He’d have to cook up a story later about a panther getting lose from the zoo or something like that after this was all over, he was sure.

Leaning heavily on the door as he climbed out, he had to stop and turn to rest his body against the side of the car for a moment as a wave of dizziness swept through him from suddenly standing up. _Aaand that would be the blood loss,_ he thought grimly, feeling so dizzy he needed to rest his forehead against the car too before he fell over. He reached down blindly to feel around for the handle in the back so he could let Lirithael out, and he felt their head butting up against his hand a moment later as they made a noise of concern.

“I’m alright,” he insisted, short-winded and taking in slow, deep breaths while waiting for the dizziness to pass. “We need… We need to get inside and meet up with the others, make sure everyone’s okay… I saw the SUV outside, so they’ve got to be here somewhere… Can’t go in the main entrance, so we’ll have to find another way...”

Lirithael pulled away from him, and Ianto managed to turn himself to see them brace themself for a moment. Before Ianto even had a chance to ask what they were doing, Lirithael was already running full out at the nearest glass window. They smashed through it easily, skidding a little on the other side before stopping and then bounding back over to Ianto.

He couldn’t help but laugh lightly. “When one door closes, make another one yourself. Works for me.” He climbed back onto Lirithael’s back as quickly but as carefully as he could, and Lirithael dashed back through the window into the Tower. “We need to find the stairs,” Ianto instructed. “Sylas wanted some place with a view, so they’ve got to be higher.” The lift would be easier, but then it would definitely be noticeable someone was coming up in it.

While Lirithael walked around as Ianto looked for the stairwell, he peeled off the hoodie and dropped it onto the ground, giving a little sigh of relief once he’d gotten out of the slightly restrictive clothing. 

All of a sudden, Lirithael abruptly stopped and tensed up, their fur raising as they let out a low, threatening growl.

“What is it…?” Ianto asked quietly, feeling more uneasy than usual without having a gun on him.

Lirithael continued growling, placing their body lower to the ground and slowly slinking forward in a manner akin to hunting.

For a long, tense moment, nothing happened… then three figures bolted out into view, all pointing their guns at him with a female voice commanding, “Freeze!”

Ianto let out a yell at having been startled… then followed it up with a laugh when he saw it was Tosh, Owen, and Gwen. “God, am I glad to see you all. It’s alright, Lirithael, these are my teammates,” he reassured the alien cat, patting the side of their neck to get them to calm down.

“Ianto!” Tosh cried out as she rushed forward.

“Ianto, thank _god_,” Gwen said in relief as she ran up too, reaching out to hug Ianto very loosely and apologizing after he made a small noise of pain. “Sorry! Sorry, oh god, what did they _do_ to you?”

“We saw two life signs on the scanner,” Tosh explained, waving her PDA at him. “One human, one alien. We hoped it was you, but we weren’t sure. We got your message earlier.”

“Yeah, smart thinking with that,” Owen added in, already pulling on some medical gloves to assess Ianto’s injuries.

“Well, thank you for not shooting me first and asking questions later,” Ianto said with a grin. “I’ll be fine, Gwen, really, it’s just some scratches,” he reassured as her patted her on the back with his good arm in an attempt at a hug, looking around for their leader when he didn’t see him. “Where’s Jack?”

“Oh shit,” Gwen exclaimed, immediately pulling away and switching her focus to speaking into her comms. “Jack! Jack, Ianto’s here, he’s safe, you don’t have to go through with the trade anymore!”

“The trade?” Ianto asked in disbelief. “He still went through with it?”

“We weren’t sure if you were still out of danger,” Owen said, reaching out to gently hold and inspect Ianto’s arm. “If these are scratches, mate, then all I got were papercuts when I went into that cage with the Weevil before,” he stated sarcastically. “You definitely need medical attention before you get a nasty infection.”

Ianto pulled his arm free, focusing intently on Gwen and ignoring Owen for the moment, more concerned about Jack than himself right now. “Gwen? Did he answer?”

“Jack! Jack, can you hear me?!” Gwen was practically shouting into the comms now. “Jack, answer me!” Giving up, Gwen cursed in frustration. “Shit!”

“They must have blocked access to our comms,” Tosh guessed, poking at her PDA to try and see what the problem was. “I’ll see if I can undo it.”

“I’ll go up after them,” Gwen resolved, turning to run back towards the lift.

“I’ll go too,” Ianto insisted.

“Absolutely not,” Owen ordered, stepping in front of him with his arms spread out to block the way. “You’re injured; can you even walk on those legs?”

“You think that’s going to stop me?” Ianto challenged, glaring at him.

“Jack gave me the order that as soon as we saw you, you were to be my top priority, so I _will_ sedate you if I have to,” Owen shot back.

“Those are Lirithael’s people!” Ianto argued back. “And Lirithael is using an alien cat as a host that doubles very well as an assassin; I won’t be defenseless!”

“You think Gwen’s going to let you get into the lift with her?” Owen challenged, raising his eyebrows.

That made Ianto go quiet for a moment. “_Fine_,” he said shortly, tugging the fur on one side of Lirithael’s neck in a silent message. “Then I guess I’ll just have to take the stairs. _Lirithael, go!_”

Lirithael bolted off in the direction Ianto had wordlessly instructed them, and Ianto heard Owen and Tosh yell out behind the two of them as they ran.

“Ianto, you bastard!” Owen shouted as he chased after them, but the alien cat was much faster than he could go.

Ianto and Lirithael were easily able to make it to the stairwell, and once they got there, Ianto expected Lirithael to start running up it. Instead, they stopped and hunkered down a little, making a noise of communication.

“What are you doing?” Ianto protested, not understanding what they were trying to say. “They’ll catch us and stop us!” 

He got the message clear enough when Lirithael wiggled their bottom end and maneuvered themself into a position that made it clear they were about to leap up. _Hold on tight!_ With a yelp, Ianto wrapped his arms as securely as he could around the cat’s neck as Lirithael launched upwards, leaping from side to side as they made their way up the stairwell.

After a few jumps, Ianto couldn’t hold back another slightly crazed laugh. Here he was, bounding up a stairwell on the back of an alien cat who not even half a day ago had tried to all but kill him. He could hear Owen yelling up the stairs after them calling him some not very nice names, but there was no way the doctor would be able to catch up to them now. “Find the bombs!” he yelled back.

Lirithael was able to move fast enough that by the time they got to the top, Gwen hadn’t arrived yet in the lift. “Which way did Jack go?” Ianto asked urgently, and the cat put their nose to the ground, sniffing around and taking a moment to pick up the scent before bolting off once they had it. It took them to a door that must lead out to the roof, and Ianto used his good arm to open the door just a little bit as quietly as possible, enough so he could hear if anything was being said on the other side of it.

“Oh, searching the countryside for one person probably won’t be,” he heard Sylas say. “So you’d best go and get started before he bleeds to death or dies from hypothermia or something like that. Do you have any man-eating wild animals on this planet during this time period? Who knows, maybe he’ll get eaten by them. Maybe they’re making a tasty little morsel out of him right now.”

Guessing that they were talking about him and that Sylas had to be talking to Jack – because who else would he be taunting? - Ianto pushed the door open the rest of the way, and Lirithael carried him out. “Wales doesn’t have any man-eating wild predators,” he answered smoothly, “and he won’t have to do any searching at all, because as you can see, I’m right here.” 

He fought back a smile at the way Jack’s face lit up in joyous relief at the sight of him, then saw Jack’s expression darken in anger once he saw the state Ianto was in. From behind him, he heard a woman’s voice say Lirithael’s name breathlessly, and Ianto glanced back to take note of a woman and a younger man. They had to be Lirithael’s people, judging by the relieved look on their faces and the fact that Lirithael had begun to purr happily.

Ianto slipped off of the cat’s back, using his good arm to support himself and trying not to shake on his weak legs as he stood there, not wanting to appear vulnerable in front of Sylas.

“As glad as I am to see you... what the hell are you doing up here?” Jack demanded, moving to position himself in front of Ianto with his back to the younger man since he was the only one who had a gun out at the moment. “You should be getting your injuries taken care of by Owen!”

“The comms weren’t working; we couldn’t get a hold of you,” Ianto explained. “And I won the race to get up here the fastest – alien cat and all.” He turned his head to speak to the two others of Lirithael’s kind. “You should both get out of here,” he suggested firmly, and Lirithael made a noise of agreement.

“Eluael, go,” the woman instructed, eyeing how injured Ianto looked. “I will remain with Lirithael.”

Lirithael made a louder noise of protest this time, motioning with their paw towards the door insistently.

The woman looked extremely hesitant to leave, but finally nodded her consent after a pause. “Very well; if you are certain.”

Lirithael let out another noise of agreement, and the woman turned to follow the younger man out the door.

The whole time that exchange had been going on, Sylas had stood there frozen, almost like he was so in shock that Ianto had actually managed to make it all the way here that he couldn’t move. But when the woman and young man made to leave, his face twisted into an expression of furious rage. He plunged his hand into his pocket to pull out some sort of device, hit a button on it, and tossed it in their direction with an angry scream.

_Oh shit,_ Ianto only had a horrific moment to realize. _One of the bombs._

“_Ianto!_” Jack shouted, immediately turning around and tossing his gun down in order to throw himself at Ianto in an attempt to shield him from the coming blast.

Lirithael let out a screaming cry of distress, lunging forward to get protectively in front of Jack. The loss of their support holding him up and Jack bodily slamming into him caused Ianto to go falling backwards as a deafening explosion ripped around them, and even though Jack wrapped one arm around him tightly while throwing the other one out in an attempt to cushion his fall as much as possible, Ianto’s head still smacked painfully against the roof, causing his vision to white out for a moment before it went black, unconsciousness claiming him once again.


	7. Chapter Seven

“I am going to kill him,” Owen grumbled as he stood next to Tosh in the lift. “I am going to absolutely bloody kill him, if he doesn’t die from blood loss first. What was the idiot thinking?” He leaned over to take a look at Tosh’s scanner. “You find anything yet?”

Tosh shook her head, frowning in frustration but also looking focused too. “I’m still not picking up any of the bombs, or any signs of life either, but we _know_ they’re up here; they’re definitely using something to block my scanner. The bad news is I can’t get into whatever they’re using to shut it down with just this; their technology is more advanced.”

“And the good news? Please tell me you’ve got _some_ good news,” Owen said, grasping his gun with both hands in a ready position and stepping closer to the lift doors as they got closer to the top so he’d be in front.

Tosh smiled ever so slightly in her ‘Our opponents might be clever but I’m clever too’ way. “The good news is I managed to trace where the blocking signal is coming from even if I can’t access whatever is causing it. One floor down from the top.” She reached forward to hit the button to stop at that floor.

Once the lift arrived there, Owen carefully peered around the corner and made sure the hallway was completely clear before he exited the lift. “Which way, Tosh?”

“That way.” Tosh pointed with her gun to the right, resting her PDA on top of it so she could keep an eye on the scanner but not be caught defenseless either. 

The two of them cautiously made their way to the room Tosh had tracked the signal to, finding the door to it left open slightly ajar. Owen pointed a finger at Tosh then pointed to the right, indicating that he would take the left, and Tosh nodded back in understanding. Owen opened the door the rest of the way with his foot, and he and Tosh stepped in quickly, standing back to back with their weapons pointed in their respective directions.

It looked like some sort of boardroom, containing a long table that had an advanced-looking portable computer on it. 

“Looks clear,” Owen observed, although he still kept his gun up and aimed towards the door just in case. “You get started on getting that signal down, and I’ll keep an eye out for any trouble.”

Tosh hurried over to the computer and began to get to work. The keyboard was marked with symbols she didn’t understand, so she scanned it with her PDA, then grinned when it registered as a language she’d already encountered and translated before. It didn’t take her much longer before she was able to get into the system and shut down the program that was preventing them from communicating.

“Gwen, Jack!” she said urgently into her comms. “Can you hear me?”

“Tosh, yeah, I can hear you,” Gwen answered immediately. “Everything okay? Any word from Jack yet? I’m trying to find the door that leads up to the roof; I heard a noise that sounded like some sort of explosion just a few moments ago.”

“No, I haven’t heard from him,” Tosh replied, “but our comms are back up; he should be able to hear us now. Let me see if I can find out where he is.” She picked her PDA up again and began to run another scan of the building, hoping it would work this time.

“Jack? Jack, answer me!” Gwen demanded, waiting for a moment for a response. When there was none, she stated gravely, “Something’s wrong.”

“Gwen...” Tosh said hesitantly, knowing the other woman wasn’t going to like hearing this. “Keep an eye out for Ianto too. He went up the stairwell to find Jack.”

“What?!” Gwen exclaimed incredulously. “I thought Owen was taking care of him!”

“In my defense, he _was_ riding on the back of an alien cat,” Owen protested, still keeping a watch on the door. “And how was I to know he was going to do a runner? Would have sedated him if I’d had the chance.”

“Okay, Tosh, can you get a scan on anything yet?” Gwen asked, switching the focus back to what their orders had been.

“I’m getting six signs of life that read as human,” Tosh said triumphantly. “I can’t pick up on the Audimus or Owen. There’s three on the roof; Ianto must have found Jack. I can see where I am, so if one of those is you, Gwen, then…” Tosh was silent for a moment before her tone became more serious. “Then there’s someone on the same floor as you.”

“Can you find me a path that goes around them so I can get to Jack and Ianto?” Gwen asked.

“No,” Tosh answered solemnly. “I can pick up the bombs on the scanner now; there’s eight of them on your floor, and they’re all active. You’ve got to be _very_ careful.”

Gwen cursed softly. “Can you find a way to disarm them remotely?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Tosh promised. “Just stay where you are right now; you’re safe there for the moment. I’ll keep you informed.” 

“I’ll go help,” Owen said, already moving towards the door.

“Owen, be careful!” Tosh called out before he could leave. “I can’t pick you up on the scanner, so I can’t direct you away from the bombs.”

“Right, let me get a good look at where they are,” he said, coming back over and committing to memory as best as he could the locations of the bombs on the map.

Tosh started to type away at the keyboard while he did that, locating an active program that was monitoring something. When she brought it up, she did a double take at what she saw on it. “Owen, look!” she said to get his attention.

“What?” he asked, glancing up to see.

“What’ve you got, Tosh?” Gwen inquired.

“Cameras.” She pointed at the screen that now showed at least a dozen different camera angles. “They must have hacked into the security system with this; that’s how they were watching us. But something’s off about some of them...” She murmured that last sentence to herself, trying to figure out what it might be. It only took a few moments before her eyes widened in realization. “The top row, I’m pretty sure those are from the building’s security system, but the rest of them, the angles they’re at… They’re too low to be security cameras. And look at that one...” She pointed at a specific image. “It’s almost exactly like the one right next to it. You can see the wall, but there’s that rectangular object, roughly hand-sized, see? Almost like a mirror image...” Tosh trailed off thoughtfully for a moment, before she took in a sharp breath as realization hit her again. “They’re across from each other. And the others… Oh my god,” she said in horror.

“What?” both Gwen and Owen demanded.

“I think those are the bombs. They’ve put cameras on all the bombs. If they’re fragmentation ones, then…” Tosh faltered, looking disturbed.

“Then they watch while whoever is in the blast radius gets ripped to shreds,” Owen guessed grimly. “What kind of sick fucks are these people?”

“Are they activated by motion?” Gwen asked, trying to work out how to get around them for now, her focus on helping Jack and Ianto first.

“Doesn’t appear so… Looks like it’s by manual or remote detonation only. There’s a five second delay before they go off.” Tosh glanced over at her PDA to check and see where the other life signs were, letting out a startled gasp when she saw one moving quickly. “Gwen, are you still standing still?”

“Yes, I haven’t moved at all,” Gwen answered in slight confusion.

“You’ve got to get out of there!” Tosh said urgently. “The other person is coming right towards you! Go left, quickly! Don’t go right, there are bombs that way!”

She watched as the dot that represented Gwen went left, her heart beating fast with worry as the other dot continued after her friend.

“I’m going to go help her,” Owen said, already dashing out the door.

Tosh didn’t answer Owen, already directing Gwen on a safe route to go that wouldn’t take her near any of the bombs. But the other person kept on following her, no matter what Tosh said… What she said… “Oh no,” Tosh whispered as she had another realization.

“Tosh, what it is?” Gwen asked, a little out of breath from running.

“They were listening to us before so they’re probably still listening now! Gwen, they could be listening to exactly where I’m telling you to go, but I can’t do that and try and block them from our comms at the same time!” Tosh said hurriedly. 

On the floor above, Gwen ducked around a corner and stopped running. “Oh, to hell with this!” She pressed her back up against the wall as flat as she could, keeping her gun up and ready. “Tosh, did they stop following me?”

“Yes,” Tosh confirmed. “They’re not moving, but they’re right around the corner.”

“I’m giving you a chance to surrender!” Gwen called out so the other person could hear her. “We can see where you are, so no matter if you run, we’ll know exactly where you’re going. We know where the bombs are located, so you can’t use them against us. Just give up now, and you might be able to walk out of this alive!”

Silence was the only answer for a moment, then she heard the sound of something being slid along the floor in the direction she was in.

Once it came into sight, Gwen had a sinking suspicion she knew what it was.

A bomb.

Her eyes went wide as she took as many steps as quickly as she could within the few seconds it would take for the bomb to go off, then threw herself forward to slide along the floor when it exploded, dropping her gun. She curled up to make herself as small a target as possible, using her arms to cover her head protectively as she heard shrapnel go pinging off in all directions.

“Gwen! Gwen, are you alright?!” Tosh said frantically. “They’re coming towards you again!”

Gwen didn’t have time to reassure Tosh, only managing to get to her feet and grab her gun before the woman they had seen enter with Sylas came barreling around the corner and fired an advanced-looking gun at her. 

“Whoa!” Gwen ducked down as some sort of blue energy bolt shot past her, slamming into the wall behind her and leaving a singed hole there. Risking getting shot, Gwen threw herself forward from her crouched position as the woman fired again, wrapping her arms around the woman’s legs and knocking her to her feet. Gwen smacked the gun away so it went spinning off down the corridor, then scrambled up to her knees and pointed her own gun at the woman’s head. “Tell me how to deactivate the bombs,” she ordered. “And if you have a remote for it, hand it over _now_.” The woman simply lay there and glared furiously at her, so Gwen leaned in to bring her gun closer. “Tell me now, or I _will_ shoot you!” When the woman only narrowed her eyes, Gwen commented dryly, “You don’t talk much, do you?”

“No,” the woman finally shot back as she pulled her legs in then kicked out to slam them into Gwen’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her for a moment. Gwen fired her gun but missed, her aim having been thrown off due to the kick, and the woman rolled away, smoothly rising back to her feet and ducking off around the corner. “Tosh!” Gwen wheezed as she got her breath back. “Tosh, it’s the woman; she ran off again!” Thankfully, the woman hadn’t had a chance to get her gun back. Gwen had slapped it away in the opposite direction the woman had taken off in, so Gwen retrieved it now, sparing a quick glance at where the bomb had gone off. “Either that bomb was faulty, or its blast radius is only a few meters,” she noted when she saw the blast pattern that had been left behind by the explosion, only taking a few seconds to look it over before she followed after the other woman.

“Gwen, Tosh, I found Araellune and Eluael,” Owen informed over the comms. “They said Jack and Ianto are in big trouble; we need to deal with these bombs and get up there _now._”

“What?!” The worry Gwen was feeling for Jack and Ianto shot up. “Tosh, where’s the woman?! Can you see where she is?”

“She’s – I think she’s headed up to the-” Tosh abruptly cut herself off with a cry of dismay. “_No!_”

“Tosh, what is it?” Owen demanded, concern for her in his tone.

“I think she’s headed to the roof, but someone’s just activated a countdown for all the bombs! They’re going to go off in five minutes!” Tosh relayed in a panic. “I’m looking for a way to try and stop the countdown, but I can’t find one, and I don’t know if I have enough time to figure out how to stop them on my own; there’s no schematics for them or anything or-” she cut off in frantic frustration. “You’ve all got to get out of there!”

****************************************************************************************************

Ianto started to come back to consciousness as he felt someone shaking him. He could hear someone calling something out repeatedly, but it started out muffled due to the ringing in his ears. The ringing gradually began to fade, though, and he let out a groan, blinking his eyes open and attempting to see what was in front of him. The blurry vision cleared away with another few blinks, allowing Ianto to see and feel Jack holding him and jostling him slightly in an effort to wake him up. Jack stopped shaking him, his expression relieved when Ianto's eyes met his own.

“Ianto! Ianto, are you okay?!” Jack asked, his voice sounding strained.

“Jack…? I...” Ianto said breathlessly as he got his bearings back, brow furrowing in confusion when he heard a loud, high-pitched continuous sound. “What’s…?” Struggling to sit up better so he could look around, he saw where the sound was coming from.

Lirithael was lying on the ground, making the shrieking noise as they struggled to move, to get up, to do anything, but their body had been practically obliterated by the blast.

Ianto’s eyes widened, and he tried to surge forward, but Jack held him tight. “Lirithael! Jack, let me go!”

“It’s too late,” Jack said, sounding out of breath. “There’s nothing you can do for them; listen, Ianto, you’ve got to get out of here.”

“What? Jack...” Ianto questioned, turning his attention to the other man. Why was he sounding strange…? Why not say _we’ve_ got to get out of here? Looking Jack over, he sucked in a sharp breath as he saw the red stains that were slowly growing on Jack’s shirt. “No!” Ianto ran his hands over Jack’s back and chest to see if there was anything he might be able to do to stem the bleeding.

Jack let out a weak laugh. “Your friend there took the brunt of the blast, but I also took some hits. You’re okay, though, right? You didn’t get hit too?”

“No,” Ianto reassured, not feeling any new wounds or pains, just the same ones he’d had before. “No, I didn’t get hit; I’m alright.”

“Good. That’s good,” Jack said in relief, already sounding weaker even as he locked his arms around Ianto a bit tighter. “Here’s the plan; I’ll hold Sylas off for as long as I can while you run.”

“_No_,” Ianto insisted.

“Ianto, you’ve _got_ to _run_!” Jack said, raising his voice.

“I am _not_ leaving you!” Ianto said adamantly.

“That’s an order!” Jack yelled.

“_I don’t care!_” Ianto shouted over the top of him. “I _can’t_ anyway; the only reason I got this far was with Lirithael’s help! I can’t walk on my own right now, let alone run!”

Jack’s face twisted into something pained and desperate, and he hugged Ianto tightly to him again, as if he could still shield him somehow just by doing that.

Ianto hugged him back, resting his head on his shoulder with his face turned towards Jack’s neck so he could talk softly enough that Jack could still hear him. “It’s okay,” he reassured him firmly as he felt Jack’s body begin to slump, the captain’s life continuing to slowly leaving him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Footsteps approaching them and a dark, chuckling laugh had Ianto lifting his head up to glare angrily at Sylas.

Lirithael stopped screeching and decided to abandon their mangled host, coming out of it to hover there in their true form, although there was nothing they could do now besides float there and project emotions. They weren't feeling any lingering pain from when their host body had been shredded, and when Ianto felt their intense, almost blinding fear for him and Jack, he realized that the only reason Lirithael had been shrieking like that was because they'd been terrified for him and Jack, not because they had been hurt in the blast. Ianto swallowed tightly, trying to convey a reassuring feeling with his own emotions, to let them know that it would be alright, that Jack wasn’t going to die for good, and that he needed them to not be projecting that fear at him so he could focus on planning what to do until Jack came back to life. He felt the fear pull away from him as Lirithael withdrew their emotions, and he tried his best to return a feeling of gratitude.

Sylas was smirking, holding his gun in his hand but not pointing it at them just yet. He looked very amused. “Well, isn’t this lovely,” he said in a happy tone. “You’re finally going to die for what you did to Genalara… and then there will be nothing stopping me from taking your lover away for good.”

Jack started to struggle against Ianto in an effort to protect him, to try and do _something_ even as he was dying, snarling back, “You stay away from him!” 

“I’m not going to kill him now,” Sylas vowed as he continued to just stand there, happy to wait until Jack died in Ianto’s arms. “Oh no, not after the little stunt he pulled – I’m going to take him with me and then sell him into slavery, make sure he goes to a brothel or something like that… Somewhere I _know_ he’ll be broken eventually,” Sylas promised, his tone growing darker the more he spoke.

“I’m _not_ going to let you take him away again!” Jack swore as he continued to struggle frantically, but even though his voice had conviction behind it, the weakness in the volume gave away he didn’t have the strength to back up those words.

“Jack, it’s alright!” Ianto insisted, hugging him tightly to try and get him to calm down, knowing the struggling was only making him bleed out faster. “Jack, listen to me!”

Jack continued to struggle as Sylas just laughed. Ianto pointedly ignored Sylas, shouting as loud as he could now as he tried his best to get Jack to heed his words. “Jack – Jack, _listen to me!_”

Jack finally stilled, breathing heavily and clutching at Ianto in desperation.

Ianto pulled back so he could look Jack in the face, lifting a hand to cup the back of his head and kiss him. Jack kissed back deeply and frantically, and Ianto could practically taste the despair coming from him, feeling Jack’s fingers scrabbling to find better purchase on his shirt and hold him as tightly as possible. Pulling back, Ianto looked fixedly into Jack’s eyes, enunciating his next words clearly. “I am _not_ going anywhere,” he promised, silently begging Jack to pick up on what he was trying to convey with just looks and vague words alone, that he had come up a plan and that it relied on Sylas not knowing Jack could come back to life. “_Trust_ me.” Taking in a steadying breath, he closed his eyes and rested their foreheads together. “_Trust. Me._”

For a moment, all Jack did was breathe raggedly… but then he gave a slow, single nod. 

Ianto held him close again, rocking him ever so slightly in an attempt to soothe him as Jack’s breaths became weaker and weaker. “You’d… You’d better still be here...” Jack murmured so quietly Ianto almost didn’t make out what he said. Ianto felt Jack’s arms go limp around him, and he only breathed a few more times before he stopped breathing altogether.

Ianto felt a surge of warning from Lirithael, and he finally opened his eyes to look up at Sylas. The man looked like he’d won the lottery, grinning so big Ianto hoped the smile would crack his face open. He was also pointing his gun right at Ianto’s head now.

Sylas lifted some sort of small device up with his free hand, speaking into it cheerily. “Hey, Tani? Come up here now; we’re ready to go. I got what I wanted. As for you?” he said to Ianto. “Move away from him.” He waved the gun in emphasis, deciding it was a threatening enough gesture.

Ianto pressed his lips together into a thin line as he gently and reverently laid Jack down, playing the part of the grieving lover. He didn’t need to do much acting; even though he was certain Jack would come back, there was always that niggling fear of ‘what if one time he didn’t’, along with the fact that this time, Jack had died trying to keep him safe. That made it his fault, and he blinked rapidly at the wetness in his eyes as he channeled that emotion, leaning over to press a kiss to Jack’s forehead.

Sylas rolled his eyes, tired of waiting now. He stepped forward and grabbed Ianto under the arm, hauling him up roughly and making Ianto cry out in pain, because of course he grabbed Ianto’s hurt arm. He locked his own arm around Ianto’s neck and held him up that way, although he made sure not to squeeze so tightly that he’d be choking him, putting his gun away so he could keep a better hold on his captive. Ianto reached up to try and pry Sylas’s arm away, but he knew it would not be much use.

Tani came rushing through the door looking a bit winded, like she’d been running hard just now. She quickly made her way over to Sylas, sparing only an intrigued glance at the alien cat’s mangled form and Jack’s dead body. She looked over at Lirithael contemplatively, but Sylas snapped his fingers in her face to get her attention.

“Never mind about the damn alien!” Sylas insisted, holding his hand out and wiggling his fingers in a ‘give’ gesture. “Just give me your transporter; I need to make a few modifications to it!”

Narrowing her eyes, Tani nonetheless reached into her pocket and pulled out a handheld circular device that Ianto recognized from earlier when Zav had pointed it out to him.

Sylas took it and slipped it into his pocket. “Thank you.” Then he pulled his gun back out, aimed it at Tani, and fired.

Tani had faster reflexes than Zav, and she was able to move enough that Sylas didn’t hit her heart, but the bullet still hit her in the shoulder. She let out a cry of pain, clutching the wound and looking at Sylas furiously.

“Oh, did I say make a few modifications to it?” Sylas sneered. “I meant make a few modifications to _you._ Sorry, but I need yours to take him with me, and if I have to throw you to the wolves to do it, then so be it.” He fired again at her, but Tani was already running back towards the door. “Eh,” Sylas muttered, putting his gun back away. “Don’t want to waste the bullets. Now then...” Sylas shifted his attention to fiddling with the transporter.

_Okay, Jack, now would be a really good time to come back,_ Ianto thought as he tried to carefully slip his hand into his pocket to grab the device Zav had given him without being noticed. “You’re insane, you know that?” he remarked. “It’s a wonder what Genalara ever saw in you.”

The words made Sylas instantly freeze, and Ianto could feel him start to shake. A moment later, Sylas shoved him roughly down to the ground and lashed out viciously with his foot to repeatedly kick him hard. “_Don’t you dare talk about her!_” Sylas screamed, spitting mad. “_Don’t you even say her name!_”

Ianto curled up into a ball to try and protect himself, struggling to breathe after getting the wind kicked out of him and crying out with each consecutive strike. Turned on his side as he was, he could see that Tani had made it to the door, and she had stopped and turned to see what Sylas was doing now. Lying nearby, he saw Jack finally suck in a gasp of air as he came back to life, drawing Tani’s shocked attention to the other man.

Sylas didn’t catch it, though, too focused on Ianto. When he stopped kicking him, Ianto rolled his head enough so he could see what Sylas was doing while still watching Tani out of the corner of his eye. Sylas had yanked his gun out and was pointing it Ianto, still shaking with rage and looking like he was struggling with whether he would decide to pull the trigger or not.

Ianto’s plan wasn’t going quite the way he had hoped, due to unintentionally setting Sylas off. _Jack,_ he thought frantically, _Jack, I really need you, like, right now._ He looked back over to see if Jack had gotten back to his feet yet and saw the other man reaching out for his Webley.

He also saw Tani look at Sylas, look at Jack, then look back at Sylas... before her face twisted into an impassive expression, and she walked out the door without saying a word of warning to her fellow crew member.

“No,” Sylas said, his voice trembling now. He sounded like he’d gone completely off his rocker. “No, I’m going to make you _suffer_,” he insisted, reaching forward to grab Ianto’s arm and yank him back so roughly to his feet that it drew another cry of pain from him, displaying strength that Ianto didn’t think was typical for an average human. “Just need to get these transporters working...” he muttered, putting his gun back away and pulling the transporter out again, still trying to do it one-handed as he used his other arm to hold Ianto around the throat once more.

The click of the safety being taken off a familiar gun sounded in the air, and Sylas finally looked over with wide, wild eyes to see Jack standing there, large as life, his Webley aimed right between Sylas’s eyes.

“_Get. The. Hell. Away. From. Him,_” Jack growled, everything from his words to his posture to the expression on his face and the look in his eyes promising that Sylas was going to be the one to suffer instead.

****************************************************************************************************

“What is going on?” Araellune demanded while standing next to Owen, Eluael looking very concerned. “We must help Ianto Jones and Jack Harkness!”

“Those bombs are going to go off in slightly less than five minutes,” Owen explained sharply. “Who knows how big that blast will be? We’ve gotta stop them first or else there might not be any us or Jack or Ianto left!”

“The one that went off near me only had a blast radius that was about a few meters, but I’m not sure about the others,” Gwen said quickly over the comms. “Tosh, can we touch them without activating them?”

“Stand back,” Araellune informed Eluael and Owen as she marched up to one of the bombs that had a timer counting down on it. 

“Wait, what are you - Hey!” Owen protested as Araellune reached forward and simply grabbed the bomb, yanking it off the wall. “Well, I can confirm that yes, you can, because Araellune just ripped one off the bloody wall, and it didn’t explode, so,” Owen relayed quickly but dryly. “Shit, okay, what if we just gather them all up as fast as we can and toss them off the bloody roof? The surrounding area’s been evacuated, and we’re in the tallest building in Cardiff, right?”

“It might work,” Tosh agreed. “I still haven’t found a way to remotely or manually deactivate them.”

“Throwing them off the roof sounds like a great idea to me, then; Tosh, you said there were eight?” Owen wanted to confirm.

“Seven now,” Tosh answered quickly.

“Okay, we’ve got one – make that two here,” he corrected when Eluael ran up with another one, “so there’s five more; Gwen, you heard what they look like so grab whatever ones you can see, fast!” Owen ordered.

“Okay, okay!” Gwen replied, then called out a moment later, “Got one!”

Owen tugged the pack that held his med kit off and tossed it down, then yanked his jacket off and held it out. “Put them in here!” he instructed so they could use it as a makeshift bag. “Four left; there should be one more down that hallway and three down that one!” he directed.

“Got another one!” Gwen announced as Araellune snatched the remaining one in the hallway she, Eluael, and Owen were in.

“Okay, Gwen, there should be two more you should find as you come towards us,” Owen shouted now, so she could hear him and head in their direction.

“Found it!” Gwen said triumphantly. “That’s all of them, right?”

“No, no, there should be one more!” Owen insisted.

“Well, I’m not seeing another one down here!” Gwen argued back.

“Shit! Tosh, can you get a read on the other one? You said there were seven left, right?” Owen pressed.

“Let me see – I still haven’t been able to find any schematics on how to disarm them,” she added in as a quick aside, “yes, you’ve got six of them, so there’s still one left – I think that woman must have moved it when she ran to the roof earlier because it’s right by the door now. You’ve got to hurry; there’s little more than a minute and a half left!”

“Okay, thanks; now how do I get to the roof?” Owen asked impatiently.

“This way!” Araellune instructed, knowing where to go since she had come from there. She ran off with Owen racing off after her, Eluael and Gwen following as fast as they could behind.

When they got to the door that led to the roof, though, the woman was there, her expression pained as she held a hand to her left shoulder, blood dripping down from between her fingers. She looked up at them in surprise when she saw all four of them running towards her, but then her face darkened and she turned to grab the remaining bomb off the wall.

“She’s going to activate it!” Gwen realized, trying to stop and run back the other way as fast as she could in five seconds, but they had already been running full tilt in that direction, so she skidded a bit before she could pivot and run back the other way.

Owen and Eluael stopped and tried to turn back around like Gwen… but Araellune kept on running forward, snatching one of the bombs from Owen’s jacket and not slowing down at all as she jammed her finger down on the button on the bomb to manually activate it.

The woman’s eyes went wide as Araellune slammed into her, knocking her to the ground.

“Araellune, no!” Gwen yelled out in dismay, lunging forward to try and get to her, but Eluael grabbed her and dragged her back more, looking upset himself.

Araellune gazed down at the woman with sobered expression, still holding the bomb she’d activated in her hand. “For those of my kind you enslaved,” she said with finality.

The woman barely had any time to struggle before the bomb went off, shrapnel ripping apart all around them.

Thankfully, it only exploded out to a couple meters as the first one had, so Gwen, Owen, and Eluael had gotten far away enough to not be hit by anything. “Araellune!” Gwen called out, tearing herself free from Eluael and running forward to drop to her knees besides the fallen alien. “Oh my god...” she whispered in horror at the state Araellune was in now.

Araellune’s body was in shreds, but she smiled up at Gwen nonetheless, even if her face had been damaged enough the words came out a bit raspily. “It is alright, Gwen Cooper,” she reassured, no ounce of pain in her tone with none of her wounds bleeding either. “This body is just a host. I will not be able to speak to you anymore like this, but do not feel grief for me. You must help Ianto Jones and Jack Harkness.”

Gwen gasped as some sort of light came out of Araellune’s eyes and mouth, spirally upwards to come together and form a being that looked like it was made out of some cloud-like glowing transparent matter with colors rippling throughout it.

“A-Araellune?” Gwen asked in amazement. “Is that what you _really_ look like?”

She gasped again when she felt a wave of emotion wash over her, a soothing confirmation that also had a sense of urgency too. “Jack and Ianto,” she recognized as what Araellune was trying to tell her while she climbed to her feet.

While Gwen had been kneeling by Araellune, Owen quickly glanced over the woman who had been working with Sylas to see if she was still alive. She was fairing much worse than Araellune, because she still needed her body to be working to live. She was breathing in wheezing gasps of air, her body also shredded and unable to move due to the damage she had taken. A majority of Owen wanted her to continue to slowly bleed to death in pain for what she’d helped do, but in order to make sure the threat she represented was completely dealt with, he pulled his gun out, took the safety off, and aimed it at her head to give her a faster death.

“This is for Ianto,” he said tightly before he pulled the trigger, and she immediately fell still.

“Owen!” Tosh exclaimed over the comms, reminding them they still had a countdown to deal with. “Owen, Gwen, you’ve only got 30 seconds left! You’ve got to get rid of the bombs _now!_”

“Aw, shit,” Owen exclaimed, setting his gun down so he could snatch up his jacket and grab the last bomb that hadn’t gone off. Lunging forward, he flung the door to the roof open and raced out through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was completely insane to write, haha. The part with Jack and Ianto flowed so easily because I've always had that scene in my head from the very beginning, but I quickly learned that writing an action scene with all the other characters was not easy due to having to map out where everyone was and who needed to go where and ugh... It took me about two days just to get that all straightened out, so I hope it paid off! XP
> 
> One more bad person down, one more left to go... and one final chapter left before this story in the saga wraps up! There's still a few more high-stakes situations yet to come, bwahaha!


	8. Chapter Eight

“Stupid of me,” Sylas said to himself with a shake of his head, watching Jack with an almost detached expression now, one arm still wrapped securely around Ianto’s neck and holding him tight. “Should have checked to make sure you were really dead, stupid of me not to,” he observed. “But no matter. I’ll still win. I’ve got the transporters now, see?” He held one of the devices up in emphasis. “Just have to click the buttons, and off we go.”

“I said _get the hell away from him_, or I will put a bullet in your brain!” Jack ordered as he slowly advanced closer to them, anger and worry etched all over his features.

“Hmmm… Wonder why you haven’t already?” Sylas wondered aloud, tilting his head to the side thoughtfully. “I don’t have my gun out at the moment… Oh. Oh!” Sylas grinned brightly when he put it together. “That’s right. We’re on a rooftop, aren’t we? Not too far from the edge, hm? Don’t want to risk him falling off of it, am I right?”

Jack’s expression grew more tight, giving Sylas his answer and making the man laugh. “That’s a good idea, you know. Alright then,” he said to Ianto, not noticing that Ianto had started to slip his hand into the pocket on his suit trousers again. “I want you to take the transporter and activate it or else I’ll throw you off the roof, how about that?”

Ianto let out a short laugh of his own, fingers grasping around the device Zav had given him and feeling around as he talked to make sure he could hit the button to activate it as soon as he brought it out. “Being thrown off a roof or being sold into slavery? I’ll pass on both. And as much as a trip to the future sounds intriguing, I can think of other things I’d like to do, like _go home_ or have a nice and simple date. I was hoping to go on one yesterday after work, but then you sicced your cat on me, and we all know how that turned out.”

Jack was still aiming his gun at Sylas, his mouth pressed together in a thin line, but Ianto knew him well enough to pick up on the slight incredulousness in his expression, eyebrows furrowing in a silent question of _What are you doing?_

Ianto resisted the urge to roll his eyes at him – Jack must have been too on edge to pick up that Ianto was simply trying to buy more time. He mouthed _Get ready_ instead.

Jack opened his mouth to speak, a look of protest on his face, but then he paused and closed his mouth grimly, giving a slight nod and trusting that Ianto knew what he was doing.

“No!” Sylas said angrily, giving Ianto a rough shake. “I didn’t come all this way to leave empty-handed! I’m taking you with me, to make _you_ suffer!” he shot back over to Jack. “Even if you’re a damn Time Agent, you’ll _never_ be able to find him again! Now,” he ordered Ianto, shoving one of the transporters in front of him, “take this and _push the damn button!_”

“Well… I do like pushing buttons on circular objects, so if you insist.” Ianto tugged the short-circuiting device out, slapped it against Sylas’s side so it was pressing right up against him, and jammed his finger down on the activation button. An electric surge ran through the two of them, causing both of them to cry out and drop to the ground as they were shocked.

“_Ianto!_” Jack yelled, racing forward just as Owen flung the door open and came barreling out onto the rooftop, Gwen and Eluael following close behind him. Jack and Owen raced closer to the edge of the building, Jack to get to Ianto, Owen to do who knows what. “What are those?!” Jack demanded as they ran, seeing the bundle Owen was carrying in his arms.

“A shit ton of frag bombs that have less than 20 seconds before they explode, but the blast radius is only a few meters, so I’m going to chuck them off the roof!” he explained.

Getting a quick idea, Jack abruptly stopped and put an arm out in front of Owen to halt him. “Give them to me!”

“What?” Owen asked, taken aback by the sudden order.

“Just _give them to me_ and check on Ianto!” Jack insisted. Owen quickly shoved the bundle at him, and Jack snatched it up then ran to Sylas, grabbing him and hauling him roughly to his feet with his free arm.

Sylas looked dazed and stumbled a little as he tried to keep himself standing, saying something in a language that wasn’t recognizable. “Oh, I get it,” Jack realized as he dragged Sylas right up to the edge of the rooftop, Sylas beginning to struggle against him now. “That thing shorted out all your little gizmos. No working transporters, no working translation chip… I really hope you can still understand what I’m saying, though, because I’m going to do you a favor.” Jack crammed the bundle up against Sylas’s stomach, giving Sylas a look of vengeance that informed him he was about to die exactly as Jack had promised - in as much pain as possible. “I’m going to reunite you with your dead lover. What was her name again?” Jack taunted then added flippantly, “Ah, who cares.” With a hard shove, he pushed Sylas off the top of Capital Tower.

A few moments later, and all six remaining bombs exploded, tearing Sylas practically apart. If that hadn’t killed him, then the fall from highest building in Cardiff would, Jack was certain, but he didn’t bother continuing to watch until Sylas hit the ground. His attention was already turned back to Ianto.

Owen and Gwen were reaching down to help Ianto to sit up, Ianto wearing a dazed expression and wincing as he wrapped an arm around his stomach.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked with a hint of franticness, Gwen moving back so Jack could kneel next to him and reach out to grasp onto his shoulders. “Ianto, _are you okay?_”

“Yes – yes, I’m fine, it was just a little shock, it’s-” Ianto started to say a bit breathlessly but was cut off when Jack tugged him forward for a relieved, deep kiss. Ianto closed his eyes and relaxed into it, reaching out to get a hold on Jack’s shirt, and for once, not giving a damn that Owen and Gwen were right there. When Jack pulled back, a bright grin stretching across his whole face, Ianto blinked at him a bit woozily and corrected himself. “Well, now I feel a bit lightheaded, but I think that’s the desired effect. That, or I have a mild concussion and blood loss.”

Jack laughed and pulled him forward to give him a big hug, and even thought Ianto cringed a bit from the all the pains he was still feeling, he returned it wholeheartedly anyway.

“Tosh? Yeah, it’s alright, you can calm down; they’re both okay, it’s over,” Gwen reassured as she spoke into her comms, smiling widely in utter relief.

Owen shook his head in exasperation at Jack and Ianto but allowed them their small moment nonetheless before he made a shooing motion at Jack. “Alright, out of the way, Harkness, and let me take a look at my patient. I’d ask you to hold him down to make sure he doesn’t do another runner this time, but I think he might like that too much, and that’s something I definitely do not want to see,” he commented dryly.

“Shut up, Owen,” Ianto muttered, his cheeks coloring in slight embarrassment, but he stayed dutifully still while Owen took a look at him.

“What on Earth happened to your comms, Jack?” Gwen asked him. “We were trying to reach you for ages after you went up! There was a bit there where they had blocked our signal, but Tosh got it back not long after.”

“Of course she did,” Jack said, full of pride for Tosh because he knew how smart she was. He lifted a hand to feel around his ear, finding it empty, so he gave a little shrug. “Must have gotten knocked off in the blast.”

“What blast? What happened?” Gwen asked.

Jack waved a hand at her. “I’ll tell you later. I’ve had enough of rooftops for today, and Ianto definitely needs to take a trip to the hospital.”

Owen stood up, nodding in confirmation. “You are going to look like Frankenstein’s monster for a bit, mate, because you are most likely going to need a bunch of stitches,” the doctor informed Ianto. “But I’m not seeing anything worrisome that immediately needs to be taken care of, so lets get you off this roof, yeah?”

“Yes, please,” Ianto agreed. “But can I take the lift this time?” he asked plaintively.

Jack laughed, reaching down to wrap Ianto’s good arm around his neck and carefully helping him to stand up. “Sounds like a plan,” he seconded.

Owen rolled his eyes and scoffed a bit but helped to support him from the other side until he was on his feet again.

Jack slung his free arm around Ianto’s waist to act as both physical and emotional support as he made a suggestion. “You know, if you need me to carry you, I can-”

“_No_,” Ianto cut him off insistently. “I am not letting you _carry_ me in front of the whole team while my legs still work fine.” At the look, Jack, Owen, _and_ Gwen all gave him, he amended, “Alright, _mostly_ fine.”

“We’re going to have to talk about your definition of ‘mostly fine,’ Ianto,” Owen said with another exasperated shake of his head. “Stubborn arse.”

“I thought the only one who had permission to talk about Ianto’s arse was me?” Jack asked teasingly.

“I swear to god, if my legs weren’t cut up right now, I would kick you in yours,” Ianto grumbled with a glare as Owen and Gwen groaned.

Jack just laughed. “Alright, Owen, Gwen, go ahead and meet up with Tosh, find a way to sneak the Audimus out of the building.” He turned his head to face the Audimus, Eluael and the other two having remained back to give the team some space. “No offense because _wow_, you are both gorgeous,” he said to Araellune and Lirithael, “but you will definitely stick out worse than tourists do. Let’s talk later, though, because I definitely have some questions about how-”

Ianto cleared his throat, reminding Jack that he was right there next to him. 

“What?” Jack protested, looking slightly affronted. “You didn’t even know what I was going to say!”

Ianto just gave him a look that read _Really, Jack?_

“Alright, alright, fine,” Jack said with a sigh, switching back to directing things. “First things first, someone call an ambulance for Ianto.”

“No,” Ianto insisted firmly.

“Ianto, come on,” Jack tried to argue, but Ianto cut him off again.

“Excuse me, I _drove_ all the way here all on my own without crashing; I can ride in the back of the SUV to the hospital,” Ianto countered as they plodded towards the door. “Besides, I’m probably going to be there for awhile, so the less time I have to spend in hospital-related things, the better.”

“God, you can be so stubborn,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “Owen, can’t you order him to?” he called out to the doctor.

Owen looked over his shoulder with an unimpressed expression. “You think he’d listen to me?”

“Point taken,” Jack conceded, letting it go.

One of the Audimus in their true form had floated over to Ianto, and even though the two of them looked exactly the same, Ianto could tell this one was Lirithael due to the feelings of relief and joy being directed at him.

Ianto smiled up at the form and lifted a hand up towards them, watching in fascination as their cloud-like ‘hand’ circled up around his, almost like a tendril that he couldn’t feel. “Thank you,” he said gratefully. “I would never have gotten out of there without your help; I owe you my life.” An answering surge of emotion had Ianto chuckling softly. “The feeling’s mutual, eh?”

“How _did_ you get out of there?” Jack asked curiously as he continued to help Ianto slowly along.

“Oh, Lirithael used me as a host for a bit,” Ianto explained. “Burned the toxin out of me so I could move.”

At those words, Jack, Owen, and Gwen abruptly stopped, turning to look at Ianto in surprised concern.

“… What?” Ianto asked in confusion.

“But I thought that was a bad thing?” Gwen questioned, glancing at Eluael for confirmation. “Doesn’t that – what was it you said – burn them out?”

Eluael looked at them with wide eyes, swallowed hard, and then looked down.

“Eluael?” Jack pressed, his tone verging on a more demanding one now.

“There’s… There is a cost to that,” he finally admitted reluctantly.

“What cost?” Jack asked sharply, squeezing the arm he was using to support Ianto around the waist tighter. “Is Ianto going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine!” Eluael was quick to reassure, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “Really, he will be fine.”

“But?” Jack prompted, starting to grow more irritated by the second.

“But… his life expectancy will be shorter,” Eluael confessed.

“How much shorter?” Jack snapped, looking Ianto over like he was about to keel over at any second.

“Your life expectancy here is about… 80 years for a male, yes? How long did you host Lirithael?” Eluael asked Ianto.

“Not long,” Ianto answered, mentally calculating the rough amount of time it had been. “Fifteen minutes at the most, I think.”

“Then only a few years at the maximum,” Eluael stated.

Ianto closed his eyes and let out a small sigh of relief. “Well, that’s not so bad then.”

He felt a sadness being directed at him from Lirithael, and he looked up at them with a reassuring smile. “It’s alright, really; it was worth it. Like I said, I don’t know how I would have gotten out of there without your help.”

The sadness didn’t lessen, though, and Ianto was tempted to ask more about it, but then Lirithael pulled away, and Jack waved a hand while letting out a deep breath of his own. “Alright, everyone, let’s get a move on,” Jack ordered. “We’ve got clean-up work to do here.”

He motioned for Owen and Gwen to go on ahead, and the Audimus followed after them as Jack helped Ianto along at a slower pace.

“I think I’ve had quite enough surprises for the last few days, haven’t you?” Jack asked, making conversation as they shuffled along. “Although that message you sent to us and how you did it was absolutely brilliant,” he said proudly.

“I try my best, sir,” Ianto answered with a soft laugh.

“That you certainly do,” Jack agreed. They walked another few steps in silence before Jack brought up, “Sooo… about this date you were thinking about yesterday. Had anyone in particular you were considering asking?”

Ianto chuckled again, shaking his head a little in amusement. “I did have someone in mind, yes. I was going to suggest going out to eat, but now I think a home-cooked meal and watching a DVD while relaxing on the sofa sounds much better.”

“Dinner and a movie?” Jack asked with a widening grin.

“Interested?” Ianto asked back, fighting a smile of his own and failing.

“Absolutely,” Jack immediately agreed, taking a moment to stop and turn to press a soft kiss to Ianto’s mouth.

“Some more of that would be nice too,” Ianto murmured.

“I can definitely arrange that,” Jack said with a wink. “But it’ll be a raincheck for after you’re out of the hospital.”

Ianto let out a groan as they continued on again. “Can we at least grab something to go before hand? Hospital food is atrocious, the coffee is even worse, and I haven’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday.”

“We’ll see, we’ll see,” Jack answered placatingly as he patted him on the back. “Speaking of previous conversations, I do have to say I finally did stand on the roof of the tallest building in Cardiff, but I think I prefer a different view,” he stated, wiggling his eyebrows at Ianto who rolled his eyes in response.

“Stop it, Owen’s right there,” Ianto muttered as they approached the lift where Owen had been waiting for them.

“Gwen and the Audimus went down already to meet up with Tosh, didn’t want it to get too snug in there,” Owen explained, giving Ianto a once-over.

Ianto resisted the urge to roll his eyes again, knowing it was more likely that Owen just wanted to keep an eye on him and wanted to make sure nothing else bad happened since Ianto had insisted on more or less walking on his own. He appreciated the gesture, but it was a bit frustrating when Owen would genuinely be nice while still pretending to be a twat.

Ianto was very glad for the break when they climbed into the lift, though, not admitting that he was getting steadily more lightheaded as Jack helped him along because he did _not_ want to be carried.

When they got the bottom of the lift and stepped out, Gwen and Tosh were waiting there with the Audimus, both of them looking slightly anxious, Tosh a bit more so than Gwen. Once Jack, Owen, and Ianto were in sight, though, Gwen calmed down and Tosh took a few steps forward to give Ianto a very gentle relieved hug.

“I’m _so_ glad you’re alright,” she murmured, pulling back with a smile.

“Me too,” Ianto agreed with an answering smile. “Don’t suppose you have any extra Sudoku or crossword puzzles I could have? I have a feeling I’m going to be on bed rest and off active duty for awhile.”

“You got that right,” Jack said firmly, even though he said it with a grin of his own.

“He said _rest_, Jack,” Tosh admonished, swatting at their leader before giving Ianto another smile along with a nod. “Of course I’ll get some for you.”

“Hey, I can do resting!” Jack protested with a laugh.

“He’s not lying,” Ianto conceded. “He does tend to need a lot of rest breaks when he’s doing paperwork because it’s _so_ exhausting,” he explained wryly.

“How about this: By the time you get back to the Hub after your mandatory hospital stay, I will have _all_ the paperwork caught up,” Jack vowed.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Ianto muttered.

“Just you wait, Ianto Jones; I’ll surprise you,” Jack promised.

“You already do that, just about every day,” Ianto stated simply.

“Okay, before you two start getting any worse,” Owen cut in, “I don’t have anything to plug my ears with so I’m going to stop you there.”

“Take all my fun away, why don’t you,” Jack said with a mock pout. “Okay, Owen, if you’re so desperate to get away from us, you can go pull the SUV up as close to the front door as you can so we can try and sneak the Audimus out as fast as possible.” He pulled his arm away from Ianto’s waist for a moment so he could dig in his pocket for the keys and toss them to Owen.

Owen caught them with a roll of his eyes but went to get the SUV nonetheless.

“You doing okay?” Jack asked Ianto, having noticed that his breathing was being a bit more heavier as they walked along.

Ianto nodded. “I’m fine,” he continued to insist, even if he did sound a bit breathless.

“Uh huh,” Jack said in skeptic but fond exasperation, shaking his head a little but not making him stop. “Just go as slow as you need to, alright?”

“Fine.”

There was a little ways they needed to go between the front door and the street, so Jack helped Ianto the rest of the way out of the building. When something caught his eye, he turned back to the others. “Hey, Gwen,” he called, motioning with his head for her to come over. “Come help Ianto for a moment, I want to check on something.”

There was a railing for Ianto to lean on, and between that and Gwen supporting him, he managed to continue staying on his feet. He had a feeling that if he sat down, he wouldn’t want to get up again, and that Jack really would need to carry him the rest of the way to the SUV as a result.

“You alright, sweetheart?” Gwen asked softly as Jack walked away, and Ianto only nodded in response, starting to get a little embarrassed by all the fussing everyone was doing over him.

Jack walked over to what he had seen, looking down grimly at the various pieces of Sylas’s broken body. The man had lost a leg and an arm in the blast, Jack noted in satisfaction. In Jack’s opinion, it almost equaled the damage he’d done to Ianto. He noticed that, somehow, Sylas had managed to pull his gun out and was grasping it limply in his remaining arm.

A strange sound and a subtle movement had Jack pausing and leaning closer to take a better look. His eyes widened when the sound started to grow slightly louder, like someone with very damaged vocal cords trying to laugh, and the movement... The movement was coming from Sylas’s chest.

Sylas was still breathing. Laboriously, but he was still breathing.

“How the _hell_ are you still alive?!” Jack asked in shock as he yanked his Webley back out to finish Sylas off once and for all.

Sylas just let out another laugh that was more of a wheeze than anything else, fingers curling around his gun and lifting it up to fire it.

“Jack!” Gwen cried out alongside Tosh’s yell of, “Watch out!”

Jack fired his Webley right into the middle of Sylas’s head at the same time Gwen and Tosh raced forward, their own guns out and unloading a few rounds into Sylas. Jack fired off a few more himself just for good measure, then held up a hand for Gwen and Tosh to pause, inching forward to snatch the gun away from Sylas and reaching down to feel for a pulse. Jack stayed there for a good while, bound and determined to make sure that Sylas was definitely dead this time before he moved away.

Owen had pulled the SUV up by that point and gotten out of the vehicle to run up with his own gun out. “What the hell?! How does someone survive not only being ripped apart but falling from a building that high?!”

“My fault,” Ianto said behind them in a strained tone. “Forgot it was mentioned earlier he’s an enhanced human. Probably has something to do with it.”

“Jesus, Ianto,” Owen exclaimed as he rushed over because Ianto looked like he was about to fall over at any second, struggling to keep himself up using the railing as a support. “You _really_ need to get to the hospital, mate,” he said worriedly as he reached out to help hold him up again.

Ianto was shaking now from the effort of keeping himself upright, and Owen only just managed to reach the other man before Ianto’s legs went out from under him. “Shit – Jack, help me with him!” Owen yelled as he was brought to his knees, not expecting to suddenly be supporting all of Ianto’s weight.

“Ianto!” Jack raced over quickly, dropping down to his knees and wrapping an arm around Ianto’s back to support him. “Gwen, make sure Sylas doesn’t move again! Tosh, call an ambulance _now_!”

“Is Ianto alright?” Gwen called over, all too happy to just about empty her clip into Sylas, only saving a few bullets just in case. 

“You idiot,” Jack scolded worriedly. “You should have let us get you an ambulance earlier so it’d be here by now. You pushed yourself too much.”

Ianto let out a shaky laugh. “Yeah, ambulance would be a good idea right about now...” he trailed off.

A glowing figure moving to hover just beyond Ianto’s head had Jack and Owen looking up to see one of the Audimus floating there.

“Get back inside!” Jack hissed. “People might see you!”

The figure didn’t retreat, instead blasting their emotions out so that Jack, Owen, Gwen, and Tosh could all feel it – blinding fear.

“W-What…?” Jack asked, reeling a bit from how strong the emotion was.

“They’re… They’re trying to tell you...” Ianto tried to say before he cut himself off with a pained gasp for breath.

Jack’s eyes widened at the implication. Looking down at Ianto’s torso, he saw the blood stains from earlier when he had died on Ianto still there… but one of those assumed stains was now steadily growing bigger.

He thought that Sylas had been trying to lift his gun to shoot at him and had missed. 

Sylas hadn’t missed.

Suddenly frenzied, Jack ripped open Ianto’s waistcoat and shirt, horrified to see the bleeding bullet wound in his abdomen.

“Oh _shit_,” Owen breathed before immediately going into doctor mode, slipping his med kit off his back and tearing it open to get to the supplies inside. He’d had his med kit on him when they’d walked into the building because Jack had ordered him to make sure Ianto was alright, and he’d removed it before he’d taken his jacket off, but he’d collected it again on the way out after they thought Sylas had been dealt with.

“Ianto? Oh my god, Ianto!” Gwen cried out, moving away from Sylas’s body and running over.

“Is he alright?” Tosh asked, coming over to see and gasping when she saw the wound. She immediately focused back on speaking quickly to the dispatcher to relay the new information that had come up, urging them to hurry.

“Gwen, get a blanket from the SUV; we need to keep him warm!” Owen ordered, pressing bandages against the wound and making Ianto cry out in pain. “Sorry, mate, gotta put pressure on it,” he apologized.

“I got it, Gwen; just help hold him up for a moment,” Jack said quickly.

Gwen knelt down next to Jack and quickly slipped one arm underneath Ianto’s shoulders so he wasn’t lying completely on the cold concrete, brushing her free hand fussily through his hair. “You’re going to be alright, sweetheart; just hold on,” she encouraged, tears in her eyes.

Jack quickly shrugged out of his greatcoat, and Gwen helped him with wrapping it around Ianto as best they could, not wanting to drape it over him because it’d get in the way of the wound.

Ianto let out a slightly hysterical laugh as Jack took him back into his arms. “S-Survived getting poisoned… mauled… beaten… and a little p-puny bullet... is going to be what takes me out...”

Owen looked at Jack with a grim expression before returning his focus to Ianto. “Come on, mate, you’ve come this far; are you really going to quit now? Where’s that stubbornness of yours when we need it, yeah?”

“It decided to take a holiday,” Ianto wheezed.

“Well, tell it to get back here; captain’s orders,” Jack said firmly, joking along but serious as well.

“S-sir, yes, sir,” Ianto tried to say humorously to lighten the mood, but the effect was lost.

“Tosh, that ambulance on its way?” Owen called urgently over his shoulder.

“They’ll be here in less than three minutes,” Tosh answered, staying on the phone with the dispatcher and relaying other information as needed while she paced back and forth with worry nearby, feeding in a cover story as well.

Owen cursed under his breath, looking troubled.

“What, Owen?” Jack demanded.

“He might not _have_ three minutes, Jack,” Owen snapped back. “This much bleeding? Sylas had to have hit something vital. Bastard knew where he needed to aim.”

_Potentially less than three minutes left to live…_ Ianto thought a bit dazedly, his senses slowly starting to slip away as his body began to grow colder. _What does one say when they have potentially less than three minutes left to live…? Wish I could use my stopwatch… It’d come in handy right about now..._

“Hey, J-Jack?” Ianto asked shakily, body cool and clammy now. “R-Raincheck still g-good on that d-date…?”

Jack let out a pained laugh that was half a sob, leaning down to press a kiss to Ianto’s forehead. “Definitely. Raincheck for as long as you need because we’re going to get you to the hospital, and you’re going to get better, and when you get out, I’m going to cook you dinner while you get to pick the movie.”

“Just d-don’t burn my k-kitchen d-down,” Ianto murmured. “I want to watch J-James Bond...”

“Sounds perfect,” Jack agreed with another shaky laugh. “We can marathon all the movies while you’re on rest, how about that?”

When Ianto didn’t answer, Jack jostled him in a panic. “Ianto? Ianto!”

Ianto stayed silent, his eyes still open but slowly blinking and unfocused. Things were getting harder to hear, sounding more muffled… He was slipping away into unconsciousness again, but this time, it was much, much colder and numbing.

Then he felt a familiar feeling he had felt before, being pushed at him from someone else… a familiar sense of determined urgency…

_I can save you. I can save you. I can save you._

_Lirithael_, he realized, and he saw them hovering just by his feet, the plethora of colors in their form swirling rapidly.

With a shaky hand, he reached out towards them in an act of consent.

Lirithael didn’t hesitate, diving forward into Ianto’s body as the others all shouted in surprise.

Ianto immediately handed control over to them once he felt Lirithael’s presence inside of him once again. His body sucked in a sharp gasp and a jerk, his eyes flicking around wildly.

“What the hell just happened?!” Jack demanded.

“I can save him,” Lirithael said, using Ianto’s body as a mouthpiece, making the voice that came out sound desperate and frantic. “I sped up his natural processes to detoxify him earlier; I can slow his body down too, cut off the oxygen and lower the body temperature, slow his heartrate and the bleeding, give you enough time to get him to the place of healing and stabilize him.”

“Lirithael?!” Gwen asked in shock. “But won’t that kill him?!”

“If it is more than a couple days, then yes, so you have to hurry as fast as you can to make sure he’s stabilized before I leave him. It’ll burn a few more years of his life away but _he will live._ If I don’t… He _can’t_ die here,” they pleaded, causing tears to leak down Ianto’s face. “He _can’t_.”

“It’d be like freezing him in cold water and then bringing him back,” Owen realized, “putting him in a state of suspended animation, almost like with Tommy. It’s a better shot than what we’re doing right now, that’s for sure,” he agreed quickly.

“Do it,” Jack ordered, tightening his hold on Ianto’s body. “A few less years is better than no years at all. _Save him,_” he begged desperately. “Save him.”

Lirithael nodded and made Ianto’s eyes close, working rapidly but carefully to take the steps that were needed to preserve Ianto’s life, drawing on the vast knowledge he had inside his mind to help.

Jack continued to hold Ianto close, rocking him ever so slightly as he felt the other man’s body grow cold, his breathing stop, and his heartbeat slow so much it wouldn’t be detectable anymore. He fought against the terror he felt that was driving him to act, to do _something_, afraid that he was just letting Ianto die in his arms instead of fighting to save him.

He kept on holding him and rocking him until the flashing lights that signaled the ambulance arrived.

Standing back and forgotten about for now, Eluael watched with wide, shocked eyes… but it wasn’t the sudden turn of Ianto getting shot by Sylas that had him stunned. It was the song he was seeing and hearing once Lirithael had used Ianto’s body as a host, causing Lirithael’s song and Ianto’s to merge together. “_Liriyan_,” he whispered in amazement. He knew Liriyan’s song and knew that Lirithael’s was similar, but the thought that Liriyan’s song might be a merging of two… It had never occurred to _any_ of their kind because it didn’t seem like it would be _possible_. “It’s… It’s _them_,” he continued to murmur, looking at Araellune’s hovering form who sent out an answering wave of awe to Eluael in agreement. “They, the two of them together, _they_ are Liriyan… _They_ write the Song of Yanojo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... I said this was going to be the last chapter, but then the team bantering turned from what I was guessing to be about 200 words into 2,000 words, pushing things well over my aim of 5,000 words per chapter, haha. It just kind of ran away on me but was fun to write nonetheless!
> 
> Next chapter is definitely the last one, and I can verify that for sure because I actually have it already written up, but I'm going to wait a couple days to upload it because I want to write a little bonus scene at the end. It's pretty much just wrapping all the loose ends up, but I realized that I would end up with about 48,000 words total, and I wanted to get past the 50,000 mark, so I thought, hey, fluffy bonus scene at the very end! Ianto deserves a fluffy bonus scene after everything he's been through in this story, I'm sure you'd all agree! XP


	9. Chapter Nine

Ianto was getting some much needed rest when he heard a voice calling out to him. It came as a voice in his head, bringing him back to consciousness just enough that he was aware of what they were saying even if he didn’t completely wake up all the way. It felt like the equivalent of a dream, one where you could wake up and remember what had happened in it, but you were still asleep and dreaming.

Ianto was certain this wasn’t a dream though, because there was a familiar presence he felt inside of him that accompanied the voice. _Ianto Jones… Ianto Jones, can you hear me?_

_It’s just Ianto, Lirithael_ was the first thing he responded back with, not thinking about what he was saying too much. Then, as he started to recall what had happened before and how he had ended up with Lirithael using him as a host once again, he hesitated for a moment before asking carefully, _I’m not… dead, am I?_ He didn’t believe he was because he was still able to think even though he didn’t really have much sense of his body right now, but he wanted to make sure nonetheless.

_No, Ianto, you are not dead,_ Lirithael confirmed with a wave of reassurance. _You are simply in a deep sleep. You had surgery to heal your wounds, and they have stabilized you, so I must leave you now. I simply… wanted to say goodbye first,_ they admitted with a flicker of sorrow. _I have something I must do after this._

_Oh. So this is goodbye then?_ Ianto was a bit saddened by the thought. Lirithael had helped him out a lot in the last few days, and Ianto hoped he was relaying an emotion of gratitude adequately enough for them to understand just how grateful he was. It was always nice meeting an alien that didn’t want to kill people for once too.

Lirithael hesitated a moment, and Ianto could feel that they were holding something back even as he felt a stronger trickle of sadness leak through. _… I am sure we will meet again,_ they finally stated.

_Ah. I take it this has to do with not being allowed to know the future,_ he guessed, judging by the alien not being forthcoming. _We never did get a chance to talk about the things I wanted to ask about before, when we were escaping that cellar,_ he recalled. _I wanted to ask you about all those stories about me and Jack… Wanted to know if any of them were embarrassing or were blown out of proportion or something like that._

There was an answering twinge of amusement. _You know all the stories, Ianto. You live them._

_I suppose that’s true,_ he agreed, mirroring that amusement. _Can’t really argue with that._

Lirithael paused, debating if they should say anything more on the matter. _I will tell you this,_ they finally conceded, relaying a feeling of inspiration along with their next words. _Not only are you going to be phenomenal, Ianto Jones... You already are._

_Thank you,_ Ianto replied, touched by the words and knowing that whatever his story was going to be, at least one being in the universe was inspired by it. _Well, Lirithael…_ he thought reluctantly, knowing that he couldn’t drag out their goodbye no matter how much he didn’t want to say it. _Good luck with whatever you need to do. I hope we’ll come across each other again in the future._

_I am sorry for what happened, Ianto,_ they said regretfully. _If I hadn’t come here, then the hunters wouldn’t have followed me and found you… Everything that happened… You getting hurt… It was because of me..._

_Sometimes bad things just happen,_ Ianto insisted reassuringly. _None of it was your fault._

_I suppose that’s true,_ they replied, echoing back his own words. _I know now that we were meant to meet; I only wish it could have been under better circumstances._ It was another echo of words Ianto had said to them, hearkening back to one of the very first things he ever had back when they were trapped in the cellar together. _Goodbye, Ianto Jones. Don’t forget me… and that I only ever wanted to help._

_I won’t,_ Ianto promised sincerely. _Goodbye, Lirithael. Do the same for me._

_You are not someone easily forgotten, Ianto,_ they reassured. _Not easily at all._

Lirithael’s presence receded away, and Ianto slipped from the dream-like state back into a peaceful rest.

****************************************************************************************************

Standing in the middle of the Hub with Owen, Tosh, Gwen, and the three Audimus gathered around, Jack cringed a little as he eyed Araellune’s form up and down. “Alright, let’s do this – everybody get ready to say your goodbyes. This won't be the first time I had an alien in me, but I’m not so keen on the giving up control part. Still, it’s the least I can do for what Lirithael did for Ianto,” he conceded, knowing that he could host one of the Audimus indefinitely without burning his soul out, what with being a fixed point in time. “You’d better not go peeping, though,” he insisted, shaking a finger at Araellune’s form.

“Thank you for doing this, Jack,” Gwen said appreciatively, knowing that she was the one out of everyone who wanted to verbally say goodbye to Araellune the most.

“Like I said, least I could do,” he said with a comforting smile. “Okay, let’s get this over with.” He spread his arms out in invitation, and Araellune slipped her true form into his body.

A deep breath and a few blinks later, Jack’s eyes anchored on Gwen, and he smiled ever so slightly. One could tell there was something subtly changed about him now, the posture and facial expression being just different enough to pick up on for someone who knew Jack well. “Gwen Cooper,” Araellune greeted in Jack’s voice.

“Are you alright?” was the first question out of Gwen’s mouth, feeling a bit weird to be standing there talking to someone else in Jack’s body but needing that verbal confirmation anyway.

“Yes,” Araellune reassured. “After we burn a soul out of a body, we no longer feel any pain in it. I was not in any physical pain at any point when I was using the host I had chosen.”

“Good. That’s good,” Gwen said in relief, smiling in return. “Your true forms are absolutely beautiful.”

“Thank you.” Araellune accepted the compliment simply before remarking, “As are you. And you, Owen Harper, and you, Toshiko Sato.” She faced each respective team member in turn as she spoke to them. “All your songs… They are beautiful.” _Even yours, Jack Harkness,_ she thought silently, not needing to say it aloud for him to hear the words.

_You’d better still not be peeping,_ Jack said wryly back, making Araellune chuckle a bit. _Wait, what?_ he asked in mock surprise. _Did you actually just laugh? I wasn’t aware you could even do that,_ he joked.

“What is it?” Gwen asked curiously at the chuckle.

“Your captain is being...” Araellune trailed off, trying to find a good way to explain.

“Jack is being Jack?” Gwen guessed, grinning in amusement.

“That is a good way to put it, yes,” Araellune agreed, her mouth tilting up into a light smile before a serious expression settled back onto her face as she got back to saying goodbye. “Thank you, Torchwood. Thank you for helping to stop the threat to my people. We will forever be in your debt,” she said in sincere gratitude.

“Of course,” Tosh said with a little nod, and Owen chimed in with, “Yeah, it’s nice to help out an alien who isn’t homicidal for once.”

Lirithael sent out a brush of amusement to them all so they all could feel it.

“Ianto said something similar to that,” Araellune explained when everyone looked at Lirithael’s form questioningly about what they had found amusing.

“Ianto _will_ be okay, won’t he?” Gwen asked, a hint of worry in her tone.

“He will,” Araellune reassured. “The time that Lirithael spent keeping him alive… It may take off ten or so years of his lifespan, and he may not wake up for a while because his body needs the rest now, but he _will_ wake up, and he _will_ be fine. I _promise_ you this,” she insisted. Once Owen, Tosh, and Gwen looked set at ease enough by her words, she looked over at Eluael expectantly, giving him a chance to say goodbye now.

Eluael smiled and stepped forward to shake Tosh’s hand firmly. “Thank you for showing me the computer.” He glanced over at it now, a knowing look on his face as he silently marveled at it one last time, none of the team understanding what that knowing look was for.

“You called it the Child of Burnt Trees before,” Tosh asked curiously, her gaze flickering over to the computer as well, as if there might be something important she hadn’t unearthed about it yet. “Is that supposed to mean something? Burnt Trees means Torchwood, right?”

“It’s just a comment from the future,” Eluael said smoothly. “Torchwood eventually becomes known as the Land of Burnt Trees in some cultures due to many translations.”

“Alright, Eluael, it is time to go now,” Araellune slipped in, giving Eluael a slightly admonishing look about revealing something from the future.

Eluael ducked his head a little bit as he was chastised, dropping that topic. “You’ll have to deal with this host body after I leave it,” he said apologetically. “They don’t do us much good in the place we live in.”

“That’s alright, we’ll take care of it,” Owen said with a wave of his hand. “We do that kind of thing all the time, although it’s usually Ianto.” He paused, then let out a low groan. “Now _we’re_ going to have to make sure this place is kept spotless so he doesn’t have a heart attack when he comes back... although... now you’re all going to know what I feel like all the time now concerning decent coffee withdrawal,” he added with a little smirk of amusement.

Gwen rolled her eyes and gave Owen a little shove before returning her attention back to the Audimus. “Goodbye, Araellune, Eluael, Lirithael,” she said with a heartfelt but sad smile, nodding at each one respectively.

“Goodbye,” Tosh added with a soft smile of her own while Owen gave a little wave.

Araellune left Jack’s body, and Eluael’s host body collapsed down to the ground as he left it, the cloud-like matter that made up their forms coalescing until all three Audimus were now floating there in their true forms. 

Jack swayed a little on his feet and shook his head a little bit to clear it as he got his bearings back, letting out a slow breath once he’d righted himself before nodding at the Audimus in thanks. “Maybe I’ll see you again sometime in the future. Just do me a favor and don’t steal any bodies again next time, okay?” he only half joked, then immediately held his hands up in a placating gesture before anyone could say anything else. “I know, I know, you only do so with permission. Just make sure you stick to that,” he warned, even as he said it lightly with a grin.

The three Audimus sent back a feeling of agreement, then they shot up out of the Hub with remarkable speed, startling Myfanwy who let out a screech of discontent as they passed her. Sensing where the nearest fissure in time and space was, they headed there.

_I will miss you, my siblings,_ Lirithael said to them in the communication of their kind, expressing an emotion of sadness as well. _But I must stay close to the Rift… I must be there when Ianto Jones closes it._

_I can’t believe that you’re actually one half of Liriyan,_ Eluael marveled. _It’s no wonder you always felt a connection to the Song of Yanojo; you help to write it. And the Child of Torchwood… They have no idea what it will grow to be, their organic computer._

_I know there were many things we could not tell them… but I feel uncomfortable we had to slip around the truth of why I helped Ianto after he was shot by Sylas,_ Lirithael admitted, still relaying a feeling of sorrow. _That it wouldn’t matter how much I stayed there as long as I didn’t burn him out completely because he’s going to be dead in a few years. I didn’t tell them or Ianto this either, but I made sure to burn out any infection he might have had from the open wounds and accelerated the healing process as much as I could while I was in control… It would have taken more years off of his life, if he would have been able to live that long, so there was no point in worrying them,_ they said sadly.

_This was meant to be,_ Araellune soothed them. _You saved him then, and you will save him again in his future. I was inside Jack Harkness for only a few minutes, but I felt the love he has for his team, for Ianto Jones. Once he hears the Song in the future, he will do whatever it takes to get Ianto Jones back. Trust me on this, Lirithael. Trust me on this._

_I don’t think calling it the Song of Yanojo would have quite as impactful a meaning to this current Torchwood, if they knew the truth,_ Lirithael commented almost idly. _I think… the Ballad of Ianto Jones would be a more fitting title._

_The Ballad of Ianto Jones,_ Araellune said thoughtfully, trying out the title before relaying a feeling of agreement. _Yes. Yes, the Ballad of Ianto Jones sounds perfect._

****************************************************************************************************

As Ianto started to wake up, he heard the soft, steady beeping of a heart monitor along with the clack of typing on a keyboard. Shifting a little to see if he could move, he was glad when he found he could, feeling a few various tubes attached to him. He slowly opened his eyes, blinking in the soft light until his vision cleared.

Following the sound of the noise, he turned his head slightly to see Tosh sitting by the bedside, typing away at her laptop. He smiled ever so slightly at the focused looked on her face, swallowing to wet his throat and clearing it a little before he croaked out, “Hey.”

Tosh immediately looked up with wide eyes, her surprised expression shifting into one of joy as she set her laptop down and stepped quickly over to him. “Ianto!” she said in delight, reaching down to take one of his hands and squeezing it gently. “You’re finally awake!”

“How long’s’it been…?” he asked, slurring the words together a bit as he squeezed her hand back.

“Almost ten days. You were in extensive surgery for awhile, and then you’ve been in a coma until now. The doctors are amazed by your progress – no infections, and your wounds were healing a bit faster than normal until Lirithael left you,” she explained. “I should call a doctor to come in and look at you. And I have to call Jack too,” she stated, looking like she was debating about which one she should do first. “We’ve all been sitting with you; Jack wouldn’t leave your side for three days until we threatened to have him get thrown out so he’d take care of himself. He actually brought paperwork to work on when he came back later,” she said with a grin.

Ianto let out a quiet, breathy laugh, still sounding a bit hoarse from not having spoken in awhile. “Hub’s not too much of a mess, is it? I dread to think about what state it’s in.”

“It’s not bad, I promise,” she reassured, giving his hand another squeeze as she pulled her mobile out and dialed. “I’ll call Jack first; he’ll probably have my head if he finds out I didn’t call him the second you woke up.”

She put it on speakerphone so Ianto could hear, smiling brightly at him as they listened to the dial tone until Jack picked up.

“Tosh?” Jack asked, sounding more or less casual. “What’s up?”

“I have a surprise for you,” she said happily, holding the phone closer to Ianto so he could speak into it easier.

“Hello, Jack,” he said warmly, unable to hold back the smile from his own face.

“Ianto?” Jack sounded surprised, the tone of his next words changing to deep relief. “God, Ianto, is that you?”

“Yep,” Ianto answered simply.

Jack laughed in delight. “It’s about time you woke up from your beauty rest. Hey, Owen, Gwen!” he called out. “Grab your stuff, we’re taking a trip to the hospital for a visit!” There was a pause as someone must have said something back to him, and he laughed happily again. “Yep, Ianto finally decided to wake up. Yeah, he’s okay. You’re okay, right?” he asked Ianto, abruptly sounding a little concerned.

“I’m okay,” Ianto reassured. “Really, Jack, I’m fine. Still feeling a bit tired, and I’m assuming they’re feeding me a lovely cocktail through an IV because I’m feeling pretty good right now.” He drew out the word ‘pretty’ for a bit longer to emphasize he was definitely feeling the effects of some sort of drug. “Feeling _much_ better than I felt the last time I was conscious, that’s for sure.”

“I called you as soon as he woke up, Jack,” Tosh informed him, “so I still need to go get a doctor to have them look Ianto over now.”

“You do that, Tosh. We’ll be there soon, okay, Ianto? Don’t go anywhere,” he said half jokingly, half serious.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Ianto said lightly. “I want to hear all about this paperwork you’ve supposedly been doing.”

Jack chuckled. “I said I’d surprise you, didn’t I? I’ll see you in a bit, Ianto.”

“See you in a bit.”

Tosh echoed the words before she put her mobile away, patting his arm gently. “I’ll go get a doctor now.”

Ianto made a noise of confirmation, closing his eyes as Tosh left the room and resting a bit until she came back with the doctor. The doctor checked the instruments he was hooked up to, did some simple tests, and asked him some questions, Ianto dutifully responding as instructed with Tosh helping to fill in any cover story things that needed to be added in. Once the doctor was satisfied, she pronounced that Ianto should be able to be discharged tomorrow as long as he made sure to take it easy and not aggravate the stitches he had now by doing anything too strenuous. The cuts on his arm and legs from the Umbra Hunter were almost completely healed now, and the gunshot wound was much better although it still wasn’t as far along as the cuts were yet.

The doctor left and Ianto closed his eyes again, dozing off a little bit but stirring again when he felt someone pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. Even though his eyes were closed, he couldn’t stop the grin that slipped onto his face, knowing who it was. When he opened them, Jack was sitting down on the bedside with Owen, Gwen, and Tosh standing around, all of them smiling, including Owen.

“Oh good, it’s about time you came back to work after slacking off for the last – how long has it been, almost two weeks?” Owen commented with a grin. “I don’t think anyone exactly understands your meticulous filing system.”

“What did you do to my filing system?” Ianto asked with a growl of mock outrage, although he did narrow his eyes at the team a little.

“Nothing, nothing!” Gwen promised, then cringed a little bit. “We just sort of, ah… left a little pile for you to put away later. We didn’t want to mess anything up!” She added that last bit in quickly to put him at ease.

Ianto sighed in light exasperation, shaking his head a little. “Well, thanks for not messing it up, I suppose,” he said in such a way that let them know he wasn’t really angry about it.

“We’ve also all sorely been missing your wonderful coffee,” Jack added in, making a little face. “We’ve been drinking something I’m not entirely convinced actually _is_ coffee, no matter what it says on the tin.”

“How did you ever manage to survive without me?” Ianto commented dryly in amusement.

“So the doctor tells me you can go home tomorrow,” Jack said, switching the topic of conversation and giving Ianto his best charming smile. “Want to do that raincheck? Dinner and a James Bond marathon?”

“Jack, the team is _right here,_” Ianto muttered, his cheeks coloring ever so slightly, more so because that smile was doing things to him versus because he was embarrassed talking about a date openly.

“Please take him up on it,” Gwen urged, lifting her hand to cover her mouth and trying to stifle a laugh. “I’ve seen him looking up recipes when he thinks nobody is looking.”

“Hey!” Jack protested, shaking a fist at her in mock outrage. “Traitor.”

“I thought you were doing paperwork?” Ianto prodded with a raised eyebrow.

“I did! I swear I did,” Jack said adamantly, holding his hands up in a placating gesture.

“All of it?” Ianto questioned.

“Well… Most of it…?” Jack answered honestly, looking a bit sheepish.

As everyone else started to weigh in about how much counted as ‘most of it’, Ianto simply closed his eyes and listened, smiling contently.

Yes, life was always an adventure when you worked for Torchwood.

****************************************************************************************************

_Epilogue_

The Rift was a tear in time and space. Inside of it, a moment could be stretched out into infinity.

A moment could be stretched out into infinity for as long as the Rift was open, at least... even at the very end of it, right before it was closed forever.

Maybe that’s why Ianto felt like the current moment he was experiencing was stretching out a little bit longer.

The Rift was closing around him, Jack’s exploding device being held in his hands after he’d detonated it. He felt a strange sort of contentment as he waited for the moment to finish and for oblivion to claim him, knowing that Jack would be safe now and remembering some of the few things Jack had said to him - _the world was empty because you’d gone_ and _I love you._ He accepted his coming death, bolstered with the knowledge that Jack Harkness loved him. Jack hadn’t needed to tell him that because he already had known even if Jack had never said it seriously before, but he gathered the feeling it had brought anyway, holding it close and keeping it there until death claimed him. He was determined to make the last thing he would think about before he died be that Jack loved him.

Then he felt something reaching out to him.

It was something he hadn’t felt for a few years, but it was something he’d felt a couple of times before, enough to immediately know what to do.

A familiar feeling washing over him, strong, determined, desperate.

_I can save you. I can save you. I can save you._

Ianto was already reaching back before he even realized it.

A moment was all it took.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that it's been revealed, if you want to hear what the Audimus heard when listening to Ianto's song, just listen to the actual song 'The Ballad of Ianto Jones'! I always had that planned right from the beginning, haha.
> 
> This is officially the end of Soul Song! However, I'm still going to write a small bonus scene about 1,500 words long and add it as an extra chapter. I just decided to add it as its own separate thing because it ended up having a sex scene in it, and I wanted to give people the option to skip that if that's not your cup of tea. If it's not, then you can safely stop here without missing any plot important things. If it's something you'd like, then stick around for a purely self-indulgent nice and relaxing fluffy and sexy bonus scene.
> 
> The series isn't over yet, so if you've enjoyed the story so far, stick around for the next part in the saga! It will be called Song's Interlude, and here's the blurb for it:
> 
> _Thousands of years in the future, Jack finally hears the Song and learns what he needs to do in order to save what he once held most dear. All he has to do is complete one simple deed and give up his most important possession. If he does, things will be fixed not only in his current time… but in the past as well._
> 
> ETA: I created an email specifically for writing things you can contact me at if you'd like to talk about anything Torchwood! It's listed on my profile page - you just need to click on my username, look at the top left, and click on the Profile link right under Dashboard.


	10. Bonus Scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's date night, finally! It contains a sex scene at the end that isn't super graphic but is there nonetheless. 
> 
> I apologize for having taken a while to get this up; I've been going through some health problems lately that aren't going to be easily fixed anytime soon, and it's resulted in the times where I don't feel too fatigued to write become less frequent. I am still working on this series, I promise, and I am hoping I will be able to commit to at least an every-other-week update schedule, but I can't make any guarantees. I can absolutely guarantee, though, that I haven't given up on writing these stories out to the finish, no matter what! Thank you for being so patient and staying tuned! I hope you enjoy the last final bonus scene of this particular story. Jack and Ianto finally get a night to relax!
> 
> ETA: I created an email specifically for writing things you can contact me at if you'd like to talk about anything Torchwood! It's listed on my profile page - you just need to click on my username, look at the top left, and click on the Profile link right under Dashboard.

“Ianto? Hey, Ianto.”

Feeling a hand gently shake his shoulder, Ianto blinked himself awake with a deep breath. “Hmm…?” He glanced up from where he was half lying down on his sofa, finally back at home after having left the hospital earlier that day, to see Jack looking at him with a fond grin. “Sorry, did I fall asleep mid-conservation…?”

“It’s okay,” Jack reassured. “I let you sleep while I finished up the food.” He held out his hands for Ianto to take, and Ianto grasped them to let Jack help him stand up. “We’ve got a nice and simple pasta with some vegetables and bread on the side. I figured we’d better start off light since you were eating out of a tube there for some days.”

“Probably a good idea,” Ianto admitted as the two of them walked over to table. He raised his eyebrows at Jack when he saw it was actually set.

“What?” Jack protested. “We may be at your flat, but it’s still a date, isn’t it?” He pulled a chair out for Ianto and waved at him to sit down in it. “See, I can be a gentleman. Now sit down before the food gets cold.”

“Such a charmer,” Ianto retorted with a roll of his eyes but a light smile on his face nonetheless as he did as Jack asked. “I feel like I should be more dressed up for this,” he commented, only wearing a plain colored short-sleeved shirt and knit trousers; even Jack looked more presentable, and he was wearing what he usually wore, minus his greatcoat. 

“Nah, don’t worry about,” Jack said with a dismissive wave as he helped push the chair in. “You just got out of the hospital; I want you to be comfortable.”

“So if you set the table, does this mean you’re going to do the dishes as well?” Ianto asked half teasingly. “You _never_ do the dishes.”

“I will this time,” Jack insisted as he picked up Ianto’s plate and started scooping food onto it. “You’d probably fall asleep again partway through them anyway.”

“I’m not _that_ much of an invalid,” Ianto insisted with a bit of a grumble. “I can at least dry them.”

Jack could tell from the way that Ianto was eyeing him putting food on a plate that he also meant his invalid comment in regards to that too. “It’s a _date_, Ianto,” Jack said with a bit of fond exasperation. “Let me spoil you a little bit, come on. You deserve it after everything you went through. But we can do the dishes together,” he conceded, not wanting Ianto to get too annoyed at him. “I’ll wash, you dry.”

Ianto sighed as Jack set the plate down in front of him, but he was still willing to compromise. “Alright.” Normally, he would be thrilled if Jack actually wanted to do the dishes, but he had the feeling it was more so that he’d just gotten out of the hospital, and while he appreciated the help, he didn’t want pitying or helping out of a sense of guilt either.

Picking a fork up, Ianto swirled a bit of the pasta around it silently for a moment before he broached that particular topic. “You know none of it was your fault, right?” he said quietly but insistently.

“Never said I blamed myself,” Jack answered almost too casually, pointedly looking down as he tore a chunk of bread off of the loaf.

“Jack,” Ianto said flatly, giving him a look. “I’ve known you for how long now? I know how easily you blame yourself for things going wrong.”

Jack didn’t look up at him, but he did pause for a moment.

“If you’re only doing this out of _guilt_, then-” Ianto began to say, a hard edge to his tone, but Jack cut him off, finally looking up at him sharply.

“It’s not!” Jack insisted before he repeated more calmly, “It’s _not_, Ianto. Okay, sure, yeah, I do feel a little bit like it’s somehow my fault,” he finally admitted, “because Sylas might not have hurt you as bad as he did if we weren’t...” He motioned a hand between them to wordlessly articulate their relationship.

“Together?” Ianto asked in wry exasperation. 

“Yeah. But that is _not_ the only reason, and it’s certainly not the biggest. I enjoy doing this with you. That’s the biggest reason,” Jack said firmly. “And there were a couple times there where I thought...” he trailed off, looking away.

Ianto could see the far off look start to slip onto Jack’s face, the ghosts of loved ones lost coming back to haunt him, so he reached forward and grasped one of Jack’s hands with a squeeze. “Hey.” He waited until Jack had met his eyes again before he continued. “It was _not your fault._ And I’m still here. We have no idea what Sylas would have done otherwise; it might very well have been the same thing, guessing on how much he wanted to capture the Audimus at first. If this _is_ supposed to be a date, let’s not let the ‘what if’ game get in the way of it, alright?” he insisted firmly.

Jack let out a sigh, but smiled ever so slightly, nodding in agreement and giving Ianto’s hand a squeeze back. “You’re right. All’s well that ends well, isn’t that what they say? Even though it could have ended better.”

“I don’t know,” Ianto said lightly, letting go and sitting back so he could dig into his food properly. “I think this is a pretty good ending to all that. I’d also rather end up in the hospital than the other alternative, which I’m sure you’d agree with.” Taking a bite while Jack gave a confirming hum, Ianto took a moment to savor the pasta before nodding in approval. “It’s really good.”

That finally brought Jack’s usual charming grin back to his face. “What can I say; when you’ve lived as long as I have, eventually you learn how to improve upon a few things until they’re ‘really good.’”

“Oh, I’m well aware,” Ianto answered with a little playfulness in his tone. “It’s nice to see it outside of certain particular areas, though.”

Jack snorted in amusement, and the rest of their dinner lapsed into their usual comfortable banter, the air between them having been eased.

After dinner, Jack did indeed wash the dishes while Ianto dried them, although Jack insisted he sit down while he did so. Again, Ianto rolled his eyes but compromised nonetheless. Once all the dishes were put away, they settled down onto the sofa after popping _Dr. No_ into the DVD player.

They watched in companionable silence for a while, providing light commentary every now and again, until Jack asked, “Everything okay? You keep on rubbing your legs.”

Ianto blinked in slight surprise, not even realizing he’d been doing that. “Oh. Yeah, it’s fine. My limbs just feel a bit sore still is all.”

“Do you need more painkillers?” Jack asked with a twinge of concern.

Ianto rolled his eyes. “_Sore_, Jack, not painful.”

“Okay, okay,” Jack said with his hands up in a placating gesture. “Here, I have an idea; put your legs on my lap.” He patted it in emphasis.

Raising his eyebrows, Ianto did as Jack requested nonetheless, propping himself up against the arm of the sofa with some pillows so it would be more comfortable before draping his legs over Jack’s lap, crossing them at the ankles.

Jack began to rub his hands over the limbs in a smooth massage as they returned their attention to the movie, Ianto letting out a pleasant hum of approval. Jack kept the massage going all throughout the rest of the movie, working his hands up and down Ianto’s legs in an intimate yet surprisingly non-sexual manner before wordlessly taking Ianto’s arm that had been injured and giving that the same treatment.

By the time the end credits were scrolling, Ianto practically felt like putty, almost having drifted off a few more times again. He’d ended up closing his eyes and listening to some parts of the film, but that was alright because he knew what was going on on the screen anyway, having watched it many times before.

“How are you feeling?” Jack asked quietly, knowing he wasn’t asleep even though Ianto currently had his eyes shut.

“Very, very relaxed,” Ianto murmured contently with a light sigh.

He heard Jack chuckle slightly. “So does that mean we’re counting this date as a success?”

“Definitely,” Ianto agreed, pausing for a moment before tossing another suggestion out there. “But, you know, it doesn’t have to be over just yet.” He opened his eyes to peer at Jack half-lidded, lifting his eyebrows just a bit in a wordless prompt.

Jack raised his eyebrows right back, reaching out to brush his fingers against Ianto’s cheek fondly. “As much as I’d like to, you’re not supposed to do anything strenuous yet.”

“So let’s not be strenuous,” Ianto countered. “It doesn’t always have to _be_ strenuous.”

Jack didn’t look entirely convinced, taking a moment to pick the remote up and turn the telly off. 

“I can’t believe I’m actually having to convince you to have sex with me,” Ianto said with a huff of exasperation.

“I just don’t want you to hurt yourself more,” Jack insisted.

“Jack.” Ianto reached forward to take Jack’s face in between his hands, looking at him with affectionate exasperation, but also seriousness too. “I am _fine._ They wouldn’t have let me out of the hospital had I not been. Trust me, I’m not keen on aggravating anything either; I want to get back to work as soon as possible because I know it’s probably going to be awhile before I’m cleared for active field duty again, and I’m probably going to go a bit stir crazy as a result, so I’m not going to do anything to make that drag out even longer. I don’t _want_ anything strenuous right now. I just want...” Ianto trailed off, hesitating a moment and looking away, unsure of how to verbally get across what he was needing right then.

“To be close,” Jack finished, soft and quiet, as he gently placed his hand against Ianto’s neck, the words drawing Ianto’s gaze back to meet his. “To feel… connected.” Ianto could see the warmth of longing desire in Jack’s eyes and was sure his own were reflecting the same thing.

“To feel _alive_,” Ianto admitted in a barely there murmur, leaning closer and praying Jack wouldn’t pull away.

Jack didn’t, and when their lips met, Ianto felt that familiar thrilling shock run through him whenever he kissed the other man. This was the basis for why they had started this thing between them all that time ago, the wanting to simply feel something pleasant for a little while to block out the pain that came with working for Torchwood… only that want had grown into solid feelings for each other that had caused them to embark on an actual relationship together. Now it was not only about wanting something pleasant to drown out the sorrows, it was about how they came alive in each other’s arms, how they could be themselves, how they grounded the other when things got too heavy to deal with. They’d had a rocky start that had been built around things they’d withheld from not only each other but other people as well, but now there was trust, respect, and honesty between them. Ianto still didn’t know absolutely everything about Jack, but he trusted him now to be honest about anything he or the team legitimately needed to know, knowing Jack could count on the same from him.

Coming together like this after a close call wasn’t the first time it had happened, and Ianto doubted it would be the last. It helped reaffirm that the danger was past, that they were still together, that they’d come out alive and at least healing, if not unscathed, that they didn’t have to cross another person off the list of those they had lost. Jack couldn’t die, no, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be taken away and never heard from again.

It didn’t take too long before they had made their way to the bedroom, taking their time kissing and touching each other’s body reverently as they deposited clothing along the way, Ianto for once not caring about any mess left behind.

Lights were turned off so the only illumination was what came in through the window, helping to set the mood better. They didn’t need to see each other’s bodies clearly, having learned them well by touch at this point. Lips caressed lips and skin, hands explored and sought out that which was sure to bring pleasure, fingers prepared intimate places for a closer joining, arms wrapped around torsos to hold each other tight. They ended up with Jack sitting cross-legged and Ianto sitting on top of him, his own legs locked loosely around Jack’s waist so they could be facing each other. They took their time trading unhurried, passionate kisses while Jack moved slowly and steadily, Ianto reveling in the inward delightful burn it caused.

When Ianto started to breathe a bit more harder and let slip a few louder intimate noises, Jack carefully laid him down on his back, curling a hand around his length to help guide him to a finish as he continued moving inside. He used his free arm to prop himself up above Ianto so he could lean in close enough to kiss him without putting any weight on him, and Ianto came with a tremble and a soft cry into Jack’s mouth, hands grasped almost desperately around the other’s back. Jack grinned and gave Ianto one more kiss before he pulled out and sat back to finish himself off, and Ianto followed after, carefully pushing himself up and reaching out to wrap one hand gently around the back of Jack’s neck so he could pull him close again for more kisses, curling his other hand around Jack’s so he could help bring him to completion as well. Jack came soon after with an echoing low cry, and the two of them continued to kiss lazily as they came down from their high, smiling against each other’s mouths.

Jack insisted that Ianto stay in bed while he went to get a wet cloth to clean themselves up with, and Ianto didn’t fight it, humming contently and closing his eyes as he settled back against the pillows, letting a blissful tiredness settle over him. The warm cloth Jack returned with a few moments later only lulled him off to sleep faster as Jack gently washed him with it, and by the time Jack had cleaned the both of them up, Ianto was already practically asleep.

Chuckling, Jack reluctantly tore himself away from the bed for just a moment to put the wet cloth back in the bathroom, knowing Ianto would give him an earful in the morning if he just simply tossed it somewhere like he wanted to. Clothes lying around Ianto could deal with, but a wet spot? Not in his flat.

With some maneuvering of Ianto’s half-asleep but pliable form, Jack pulled the sheets back then tugged them up over Ianto before slipping back in next to him, Ianto shifting onto his side with his back facing Jack so the other could scoot up close and wrap his arms around him as they spooned. Ianto crossed one arm over his torso so he could reach back with it, blindly feeling around until he found Jack’s arm and grasped it in a secure hold, making a small noise of approved contentment as he finally let himself drift off into a proper sleep.

Jack couldn’t help but smile at the action, pressing a kiss to Ianto’s temple before he settled in next to him. Sleep came to him a little bit later. First, he did his best to once again commit to memory how it felt to have Ianto sleeping safe and at peace in his arms so he would never forget it, even in a thousand years time.


End file.
